How Much Does It Cost to Ship a Pet from the USA to India?

The endorsement sits on the lower band at $101, because India does not require a rabies antibody titer result on the export certificate, and the fee covers the certificate rather than each animal on it. Two pets on one certificate is one endorsement fee. The certificate is valid for 30 days after issuance, which is a comfortable window by the standards of this calculator, so the veterinary appointment is rarely the constraint on this route. The paperwork on the Indian side is.

The quarantine service runs a separate procedure for each case, and the eligibility test is done before the application is accepted. Transfer of Residence is the relocation route, and it asks for proof of two years of overseas stay together with visa cancellation or relocation proof. Re-import covers an animal that left India and is returning, under Customs Circular 25/2013, and it asks for a copy of the earlier veterinary health certificate for export issued by the Indian quarantine service. The Directorate General of Foreign Trade route covers a short stay, and it asks for a valid DGFT licence obtained in advance. Working out which case applies is the first job on this route, because the document set changes completely between them and none of the three accepts another’s paperwork.

The application goes to the quarantine station a minimum of seven working days before departure, and the Advance No Objection Certificate is issued within one working day of the documents being accepted. That certificate arrives with the format the officer will use to examine the animal on arrival, so you know in advance what is being checked. The sentence in the published procedure that matters most is the one about what happens if it is missing: the airline will not lift the pet. This is not a document to chase after booking. The quarantine service also notes that most applicants appoint an in-country representative to handle the certificate, and that where a traveler has no contact in India the originals can be emailed, but that those cases are handled as exceptions rather than as the normal route. Plan on having someone in India, or on us standing in for one.

An officer examines the animal at the station on arrival. If it is sound and healthy against the published format, the final No Objection Certificate is issued at the port itself and the animal goes home the same day. If it fails the examination or shows clinical signs of any of the listed diseases, it goes into the quarantine station for 15 days, with testing recorded daily and the charges billed to the owner. That is the whole quarantine exposure on this route, and it is avoidable rather than certain, which is the opposite of how most quarantine countries work. Animals coming in for a short visit, including shows, therapy, assistance and security work, are exempt from the 15 days on documents, but the owner has to be present both when the animal enters India and when it leaves, and that exemption covers a maximum of two pets. No feed or bedding may be imported with the animal.

Your vet sets their own fees. The examination, the microchip and the rabies, distemper, parvovirus and leptospirosis vaccinations the certificate calls for are billed by the clinic and vary by state. On the Indian side, the quarantine station’s charges are assessed at the port of entry and any testing during quarantine is billed to the owner, so those are confirmed per booking rather than estimated here. Ground transport at either end, boarding if a flight moves, and the DGFT licence fee where that route applies also sit outside the figures above.

Crate size is the largest lever, because it drives chargeable weight and freight on this lane is quoted rather than tariffed. After that it is the seven working day filing and the representative. A move where the case is identified early, the right documents are assembled once, and someone in India is ready to collect the certificate costs what it should. A move where the case turns out to be the wrong one after the flight is booked pays for the flight twice. Our India destination guide sets out the full document sequence behind these figures.

Indian requirements from the standard operating procedure for import of pet dogs into India and the matching procedure for cats, both published by USDA APHIS as provided by India’s Department of Animal Husbandry, Dairying and Fisheries, and from the veterinary health certificate APHIS publishes for this route, which is the document a USDA accredited veterinarian completes and APHIS endorses. Endorsement fees from the APHIS user fee schedule. Figures verified September 2026.

Quarantine station charges, the DGFT licence fee and any port handling are not published in that material and are not estimated here. Confirm them through the quarantine station or your representative before you commit to a date.

Send us the route, the breed and roughly when you want to travel, and tell us how long you have been outside India and whether the animal has ever been exported from there. That answers which of the three cases you are on, which is what everything else depends on. We will size the crate, work the filing backwards from a real flight, and come back with a figure rather than a range.