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 license obtained in advance. The directorate’s own answers on bringing in pets, read 28 September 2026, say a short duration import is generally not allowed, and is granted in rare cases on justification for an animal kept for the owner’s medical reasons, such as a therapy or emotional support dog, that leaves India with them again. 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 filing is done by the passenger, on the ATITHI 2.0 portal under their own passport details. The procedure says no third party is needed for the Advance NOC and tells passengers not to share their login; an owner who cannot apply personally can authorize a representative in writing.

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 fees are set by an order of the Department of Animal Husbandry and Dairying dated 28 April 2025, published on the AQCS charges page, and any testing during quarantine is billed to the owner. Ground transport at either end and boarding if a flight moves 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. A move where the case is identified early and the right documents are assembled once 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 page on the cost to endorse a health certificate. Figures verified September 2026.

Quarantine station charges come from the department’s order of 28 April 2025, and the DGFT license fee from Appendix 2K, the directorate’s scale of application fees, both read 28 September 2026. Port handling is in none of that material and is not estimated here. Confirm the charges 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.