Bringing Your Dog or Cat to Hong Kong: The Honest Timeline

Hong Kong's pet import process is genuinely one of the more straightforward in Asia if you are coming from the right place, and one of the hardest in Asia if you are not. The Agriculture, Fisheries and Conservation Department (AFCD) sorts countries into groups; the group your pet leaves from determines whether you are looking at six weeks of paperwork or a year on a quarantine waiting list. There is no middle setting.

Everything below was checked against AFCD on 4 August 2026, against the published permit terms rather than second-hand summaries. AFCD is the authority. Read the official import of dogs and cats page and the permit terms for your own group before acting, and assume fees have moved since we looked.

The four groups, and where the UK sits

AFCD revised this structure with effect from 1 December 2024. The old Group III was renamed Group IIIB and a new Group IIIA was carved out of it; the Chinese Mainland joined Group IIIA on 3 June 2025. If you are reading a guide that only mentions three groups, it predates the change.

• Group I — Australia, Fiji, Hawaii, Ireland, Japan, New Zealand, the United Kingdom, and the Bailiwick of Jersey. No rabies vaccination required for entry. Normally exempt from quarantine. Minimum age at import: 60 days.
• Group II — Austria, Bahamas, Bahrain, Belgium, Bermuda, Brunei, Canada, Cayman Islands, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Gibraltar, Guam, Iceland, Italy, Jamaica, Luxembourg, Maldives, Malta, Mauritius, New Caledonia, Norway, Papua New Guinea, Portugal, Republic of Korea, Seychelles, Singapore, Solomon Islands, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Taiwan (China), the Netherlands, USA (Continental), Vanuatu and Virgin Islands. Rabies vaccination required. Quarantine may be waived. Minimum age at import: 5 months.
• Group IIIA — Chinese Mainland, Hungary, Lithuania, Macao, Malaysia and Thailand. Rabies vaccination, a rabies antibody titre, and a minimum 30-day quarantine.
• Group IIIB — everywhere else, on the same broad basis as IIIA.

For a UK reader, that first line is the whole story. Coming straight from Britain, your dog or cat does not need a rabies vaccination to enter Hong Kong and will not be quarantined. If you are moving on from a posting elsewhere in Asia — Bangkok or Kuala Lumpur, say — you are in Group IIIA and the picture changes completely.

The correction most guides get wrong

A great deal of published advice — including, until this update, an earlier version of this page — says that Group II origins need a rabies antibody titre test. They do not.

AFCD permit terms DC-02v05, which govern Group II imports, list five certificates to accompany the animal on arrival: an animal health certificate, a residence certificate, an anti-rabies vaccination certificate, a general vaccination certificate, and an airline certificate. There is no serology requirement anywhere in them. The rabies neutralising antibody titre test (RNATT) appears in the Group IIIA terms, DC-06V03, and in the Group IIIB terms — not in Group II.

This matters practically. If you are moving from the USA, Germany or Singapore and someone has told you to budget five months for a titre, you may be able to fly considerably sooner. Check DC-02v05 yourself, and if in doubt email AFCD at icsenquiry@afcd.gov.hk rather than a relocation firm.

Group I and Group II: what you actually need

1. Microchip. ISO- or AVID-compliant and readable by an AVID or ISO-compatible scanner. If it cannot be read on arrival and you have not supplied a reader, the animal can be returned to the country of origin at your expense.
2. Residence certificate. Group I: continuously resident in the country of origin for the 180 days before export, or since birth, or for the whole period since being imported directly from Hong Kong. Group II: the same 180-day residence, plus certification that no rabies has been reported in any species (bats excluded) within 10km of the animal's residence for at least 180 days before export.
3. Anti-rabies vaccination. Group II only. Given not less than 30 days and not more than one year before export. A primary vaccination must have been given at 90 days of age or older, with the previous record attached.
4. Core vaccinations. Both groups. Dogs: canine distemper, infectious canine hepatitis, canine parvovirus. Cats: feline panleucopaenia and feline respiratory disease complex. Not less than 14 days and not more than one year before export.
5. Animal health certificate. Dated not more than 14 days before export, on AFCD's form VC-DC1 (Group I) or VC-DC2 (Group II) or equivalent. Signed and stamped by a government veterinary officer, or by a registered vet and then endorsed by a government veterinary officer.
6. Airline certificate, form PC101 — the captain's affidavit, confirming the animal never left its crate and had no contact with other animals.
7. Special Permit, applied for on form AF240 with form UN110, plus a copy of your HKID or passport.

Note the identity check buried in the health certificate rules: if the microchip number on the certificate differs from the number scanned on the animal, the animal is ineligible for import. Not delayed — ineligible.

A month-by-month countdown

Group I, from the UK or Ireland. Realistically six to eight weeks. Month minus two: confirm the microchip reads, check core vaccinations are current and were given at least 14 days before your intended departure, book manifested cargo space, buy the crate. Month minus one: submit AF240 and UN110 with the fee, allowing at least five working days for issue plus postal time — AFCD will not send permits by fax or email. Final two weeks: get the animal health certificate issued and endorsed inside the 14-day window, and notify the AFCD duty officer at least 24 hours before arrival.

Group II, from the USA or Europe. Add the rabies vaccination timing and allow two to three months. The binding constraint is the 30-day post-vaccination wait plus the residence certification, not a titre. If your pet's rabies vaccination is already current and more than 30 days old, you may be closer to the Group I timeline than you expect.

Group IIIA or IIIB — moving to Hong Kong from Malaysia, Thailand or the Mainland. This is a different order of magnitude. The sequence: microchip before rabies vaccination and blood sampling; anti-rabies vaccination 30 days to 12 months before export; core vaccinations 14 days to 12 months before export; then RNATT on a blood sample drawn not less than 90 days and not more than one year before export, with at least 30 days elapsed since a primary rabies vaccination, tested by FAVN or RFFIT at an AFCD-approved laboratory, result at least 0.5 IU/ml.

Then the real constraint. AFCD's own guidance states the estimated wait for a government Animal Management Centre quarantine space is approximately 3 months for dogs and 9 months for cats, and recommends booking at least 12 months in advance. The SPCA's Jockey Club Centennial Centre at Tsing Yi operates as a licensed quarantine centre with 7 spaces for dogs and 14 for cats, booked directly with SPCA once AFCD has issued you a reference number.

Because the wait can outlast your paperwork, AFCD suggests reserving the quarantine space before taking the RNATT, to avoid paying for the test twice. If the blood sample ends up more than a year old at export, the test must be repeated — though not with a fresh 90-day wait, provided rabies vaccination has been kept current since the first test. The health certificate window for Group IIIA is tighter than for Groups I and II: not more than 7 days before export.

Flights: manifested cargo, and nothing else

This is the rule that surprises people who have moved pets elsewhere. Under both DC-01v05 and DC-02v05, animals must be transported to Hong Kong as manifested cargo. Excess baggage and hand-carried baggage are not permitted for dogs and cats. Crates must comply with the current IATA Live Animals Regulations and be labelled accordingly.

Routing matters too. The animal must travel by the fastest and most direct route. A Group I pet needs prior AFCD approval if the route involves a stopover in a Group II, IIIA or IIIB country; a Group II pet needs approval for a stopover in IIIA or IIIB, or for any leg conveyed by land. Since most UK-to-Hong Kong pet cargo routes involve a hub, check this before booking rather than after.

Then the constraint AFCD has nothing to do with: brachycephalic breeds. Pugs, French and English bulldogs, boxers, Persian and Himalayan cats are restricted or seasonally banned from the hold by many carriers because their airways cope badly with heat and stress. Since cargo is your only option into Hong Kong, an airline embargo does not just complicate the trip — it can block it entirely for that carrier. Establish the policy in writing early.

What it costs

AFCD fees, checked 4 August 2026 and subject to change:

• Special Permit: HK$432 for a single animal, HK$102 for each additional animal on the same permit and shipment.
• Permit extension: 30 days per application, three working days to process, fee payable before expiry.
• Hong Kong dog licence, issued on arrival for dogs aged five months and over: HK$80, plus the cost of rabies vaccination and, if needed, a conforming microchip.
• Group IIIA or IIIB quarantine: minimum 30 days at the applicant's expense. Government Animal Management Centre and SPCA licensed centre fees are published by each facility — get the current figure from AFCD or the SPCA directly rather than from a comparison table.

Government fees are trivial next to the cargo cost. A medium dog flown from London as manifested cargo, with crate, export vet work, government endorsement, and a shipping agent at both ends, is comfortably a four-figure sum in pounds. Get quotes.

The Hong Kong-specific things people forget

• Dog licensing happens on arrival, at your expense. Under the Rabies Regulation (Cap. 421A), every dog aged five months or over must obtain a Hong Kong dog licence on arrival, which requires a conforming microchip and a rabies vaccination. So a Group I dog that needed no rabies vaccination to enter will be vaccinated once it is here. Budget for it and expect it.
• Housing is the biggest constraint of all. Many private buildings ban pets outright or impose weight limits through the deed of mutual covenant, and most public housing estates prohibit them. Older walk-ups tend to be more permissive than new luxury developments. Solve housing before you book cargo, not after — it is the failure that cannot be fixed with paperwork.
• Keep the white copy. AFCD issues two carbonised copies of the Special Permit. The original white copy is what you present to retrieve your pet on arrival; the yellow duplicate is often what the airline wants to see before accepting the animal at the departure end.
• Notify the duty officer 24 hours ahead, during office hours, on 2182 1001 or by email. This is a permit condition, not a courtesy.
• Permits expire. Six months, one consignment. Extensions are 30 days at a time and must be applied for before expiry.
• Coming back counts as importing. Pets that have left Hong Kong need a fresh permit to return, obtained in advance.
• Climate. Hong Kong summers are punishing from May to September; winters give a genuine recovery window that Singapore and Bangkok do not. Our guides to the first 30 days in tropical Asia and finding a vet in Hong Kong cover the settling-in period. If you are budgeting for the year ahead, pet insurance in Hong Kong is worth reading before you arrive, not after the first emergency.

The failure modes

The permit applied for too late. AFCD says plainly that final travel arrangements should not be made until a permit has been granted. Five working days plus post is the floor, not the norm.

The health certificate outside its window. Fourteen days for Groups I and II, seven for IIIA. A flight that slips can void the packet and force fresh vet appointments and a fresh government endorsement.

The microchip implanted after the rabies vaccination. For Group IIIA and IIIB the chip must be in place before both the vaccination and the blood sampling. Getting this backwards invalidates the sequence and restarts a 90-day wait on top of an already long quarantine queue.

The number that does not match. A microchip number on the health certificate that differs from the one scanned on arrival makes the animal ineligible for import. Check the digits on every document.

The building that says no. The saddest one, and the most common. An owner does the import perfectly and then discovers the deed of mutual covenant forbids pets. By that point it is a housing problem, and housing problems in Hong Kong are much harder to solve than paperwork ones.