Buying a pet from abroad
The instructions on this page apply to a situation where you buy a dog or some other animal from abroad and bring it to Finland for the first time. Please read our separate instructions for situation where you travel with your own pet.
I am buying a pet from an EU country
- Before you bring in the animal, be sure to check the requirements on the Finnish Food Authority’s website.
- You do not need to declare your pet to Customs, and your pet does not need to undergo customs clearance. However, note that Customs can check your pet and its documents.
You must travel to Finland either at the same time as your pet or within five days of your pet arriving. If you do not arrive with your pet, rather someone else brings it to Finland; the import of the pet is commercial and subject to different instructions. Read more about commercial import at the bottom of the page.
If you buy a pet from the customs territory of the EU but outside its fiscal territory, for example from Åland or the Canary Islands, the animal must be declared when it is brought to Finland.
Check which areas are not part of the fiscal territory of the EU.
I am buying a pet from outside the EU
- Before you import the animal, be sure to check the requirements on the Finnish Food Authority’s website.
- When you arrive in Finland, choose the red channel. Present the pet and its documents to Customs.
- In Finland, submit an import declaration to Customs for your pet. You can submit the import declaration at the customs office upon arrival in Finland, or you can buy the service from a forwarding company.
Please note! If you arrive in Finland by air via another EU country and you pet travels as hand luggage, the pet must be inspected and cleared in the country where you make the stopover. This means that if you arrive from the United States and you change planes in Brussels, the pet must be inspected and cleared already in Brussels. An inspection may not always be offered, but you need to make sure it is done. When you arrive in Finland after the stopover, you must have a stamped EU standard model health certificate for your pet.
If the pet arrives in the cargo hold or as freight, it is usually cleared and inspected only in Finland.
Note also the following when buying a pet from outside the EU
- Tax must be paid on the animal if the value of the animal exceeds the value limits for passenger imports. The value limit is 430 or 300 euros, depending on which means of transport you use. The VAT is 24% of the purchase price of the animal as well as of transport and insurance costs.
- You must travel to Finland either at the same time as your pet or within five days of your pet arriving. If you do not arrive with your pet, rather it is brought in by someone else; the import of the pet is commercial and subject to different instructions. Read more about commercial import at the bottom of the page.
- The pet must arrive in Finland via an approved point of entry.
Please note that customs offices on the eastern border are closed temporarily.
By air
- Helsinki Airport
By road or railway
- Imatra (temporarily closed)
- Kuusamo
- Niirala (temporarily closed)
- Nuijamaa (temporarily closed)
- Raja-Jooseppi (temporarily closed)
- Salla (temporarily closed)
- Vaalimaa (temporarily closed)
- Vainikkala
- Vartius
By sea and via the Saimaa Canal
- Helsinki
- Hamina
- Nuijamaa (temporarily closed)
- Hanko
- Inkoo
- Kotka
- Loviisa
- Mariehamn
- Porvoo
- Turku
Other things to note
These requirements serve to ensure that dangerous diseases such as rabies do not spread to other animals or persons in Finland.
If the requirements for the arrival of the pet are not fulfilled, it will be returned to the country of departure. Animals that arrived by air will be returned in a transport box in the cargo hold. If the animal does not already have a transport box, one must be obtained.
If the animal cannot be returned for some reason, it must be put down, because there is no possibility to quarantine the animal in Finland.
The owner must pay the costs incurred if the requirements for arrival in the country are not fulfilled. Accommodating the animal in Customs’ facilities prior to its return to the country of departure is subject to a charge, as is killing the animal.
Importing a pet is considered commercial when one of the following takes place:
- some other person brings in the pet, and you do not personally travel to Finland within five days of the date when the other person brings your pet to Finland
- pets are sold or handed over in the territory of the EU
- an animal is travelling alone
- there are more than five animals
The importation of a pet can therefore also be considered commercial for reasons other than the fact that you intend to sell it.
There are different requirements for commercial and non-commercial import. Check the requirement for commercial import via the Food Authority’s search engine (in Finnish) (choose the alternative "ei matkusta omistajan kanssa tai viiden päivän sisällä omistajan matkustamisesta") or the section Dogs, Cats and ferrets on the Finnish Food Authority’s website.
If the animal is transported by air, but the owner is not travelling with it, the animal can only arrive in Finland as airfreight. Arriving as airfreight means that the airline transports the animal in the freight space of the airplane.
In other words, no other person than the owner can bring in the animal in the cabin or the cargo hold from outside the EU. The animal must also undergo a veterinary border inspection.
If a person other than the owner brings the animal to a new owner in the cabin or cargo hold of the airplane, the animal will be denied entry to the territory of the EU. Read more on this page in the section: What happens if the pet does not meet all the requirements?
Detailed instructions on airfreight is available below on this page.
Sometimes a pet arrives in Finland by airfreight. This means that the airline transports the pet in the freight space of the airplane. In other words, the pet does not travel in the cabin nor in the luggage cargo hold of the airplane.
When the pet has arrived in Finland, it is taken to the transport company’s temporary storage facility. You must declare the pet before it can be handed over to you from the storage facility.
Read the instructions below if your situation is this:
- The pet has been acquired from abroad. For example:
- You have bought a pet from abroad.
- You are moving to Finland and you have acquired the pet at least 6 months earlier.
- In addition, the pet is brought in from outside the EU directly to Finland without stopover or transfer in another EU country.
Before the animal arrives in Finland
First, find out the requirements for pets entering Finland via the Finnish Food Authority’s search engine.
No veterinary border inspection is required if both of the following conditions are met:
- There are no more than five pets.
- The pet arrives in one of the following ways:
- You travel on the same flight with your pet.
- You travel first and the pet travels within five days from the same country of departure.
If these conditions are met, it is a case of so-called movement of one’s own pet. Customs checks the animal and its documents. The person bringing in the pet must participate and, for example, read the pet’s microchip.
In other cases, the border veterinarian of the Finnish Food Authority will carry out a veterinary border inspection of the pet. Read the instructions on the Finnish Food Authority’s website on how to book a veterinary border inspection.
When the animal arrives at Helsinki Airport as airfreight
1. The pet arrives at the transport company’s temporary storage facility. The transport company notifies you of the arrival of the pet.
2. If the import of the pet does not require a veterinary border inspection, Customs will check the documents and microchip of the pet with the assistance of the customer. The importer of the pet must participate in the check.
If the import of the pet requires a veterinary border inspection, it will be carried out at the veterinary border inspection post of the Finnish Food Authority. Read the instructions on the veterinary border inspection on the website of the Finnish Food Authority.
After the check by Customs or the inspection by the Finnish Food Authority, the pet must be declared. You can declare the pet at Customs’ customer service point at Rahtitie 1 A, Vantaa. The customer service point is open on weekdays 8.00–16.15. At other times, you can contact Customs by calling +358 295 527 039. You can also authorise a representative to declare the pet on your behalf.
If the border veterinarian has inspected the pet, attach the CHED-A issued by the vet to the declaration.
If you are moving to Finland from outside the EU, attach a document verifying your residency abroad to the declaration, so that you can bring in the pet tax-free as removal goods.
3. Once the pet has been declared and any import duties due have been paid, you will receive a decision on release from Customs or from the representative who declared the pet. Take or send the decision on release to the temporary storage operator so they can hand over the pet to you.
Various animals
A puppy less than six months old may not be brought into Finland, if the intention is to sell or otherwise hand over the puppy in Finland within four months of import.
You can get a puppy or kitten for yourself from abroad, but only from a foreign vendor. The sale or transfer agreement must have been made between a person living in Finland and the foreign entity before the animal arrives in Finland. The agreement must show the parties of the agreement as well as the target of the agreement. In addition, the information of the new owner must be recorded in the puppy's EU pet passport or health certificate.
If the puppy is brought to Finland in breach of regulations, Customs can order the puppy to be returned to the country of departure. Read more on this page in the section: What happens if the pet does not meet all the requirements.
Read more
The instructions on this page apply also to rescue dogs brought into Finland. They can be transported under the same conditions as other dogs.
The import of rescue dogs is often a matter of commercial import. Read the detailed instruction on this page under Commercial import of pets.
The import is considered commercial, for example, if the dog travels with a person other than the owner and the owner does not travel using the same route within five days. The person travelling with the dog is responsible for the dog during the whole trip. When Customs checks the dog, the person must participate and, for example, read the dog’s microchip.
Dogs and cats that are hybrids of domestic dogs or domestic cats can be brought to Finland only under certain conditions. Such breeds are subject to generational restrictions, so Customs requires a genealogy of the pet upon importation. A genealogy must be presented e.g. for wolfdogs, and Savannah cats or Bengal cats.
Read more
The concise instructions on this page are meant to answer only the most frequently asked questions. Always check the Food Authority website for detailed instructions.
- Arrival of pets – the Finnish Food Authority’s search engine for dogs and cats (in Finnish)
- The Finnish Food Authority’s webpages on other pets