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

Note the endorsement line. Israel requires a rabies antibody result of at least 0.5 IU per milliliter from an approved laboratory, and once a test result has to be verified on the certificate APHIS charges from its tested band: $160 for the first animal and $10 for each additional animal on the same certificate. Rabies vaccinations are not counted toward that total, so it is the titer test alone that moves the fee.

Israeli regulations require an import license for any animal entering the country. You may apply for an exemption, but only if every one of these is true: the import is of up to two dogs or cats; the animal arrives with its owner on the same flight; it has been in that owner personal care for at least 90 days before the flight; it meets the health requirements; it is not of a restricted breed; and it is staying in Israel with the owner who arrived with it rather than being passed to somebody else.

Read that list again with a relocation in mind. An unaccompanied pet fails the second condition, so an unaccompanied move is always a full import license application to the Import and Export Unit of the Veterinary Services, never the exemption. That is not a disaster and it is not expensive, but it is a different process with its own lead time and it has to be started early. If your own flight is anywhere near your pet flight, tell us, because putting you both on the same aircraft can change which route applies.

Israel is unusually generous about the antibody test and almost nobody knows it. The blood sample has to be taken by an approved veterinarian at least 30 days after the rabies vaccination and tested at an approved laboratory to at least 0.5 IU per milliliter. Once it passes, the procedure states the test stays valid for the rest of the animal life, provided the rabies vaccination is kept current annually or according to the vaccine manufacturer instructions.

So the slow, expensive part of an Israeli move is a one-off. A pet that has already cleared this test for an earlier move does not repeat it, which matters for families who move often. The other timing rules are ordinary: the microchip has to be implanted before both the rabies vaccination and the blood test, and a first rabies vaccination has to be not more than one year and not less than 30 days before arrival.

The animal has to be at least four months old on arrival. Israel allows three months from Oceania, the United Kingdom, Japan and Cyprus, but not from the United States, so a young puppy simply cannot travel this route until it is old enough.

Israel also prohibits importing dogs it classes as dangerous breeds, and crossbreeds resembling them in behavior and physical characteristics, other than in exceptional cases under a license from the Director of Veterinary Services. The list is American Staffordshire, Bull Terrier, Dogo Argentino, Japanese Tosa, Staffordshire Bull Terrier, Pit Bull Terrier, Fila Brasileiro and Rottweiler. The Rottweiler is the one that surprises people, because it is an ordinary family dog across much of the United States. Tell us the breed before anything else is booked.

Your vet sets their own fees. The examination, the microchip, the vaccination and the blood draw are priced by your clinic and vary between practices, so ask your vet directly. The laboratory charges separately for the antibody test itself. The Veterinary Services charge a fee for handling and issuing the import license, and it is not published as a flat figure we can quote in advance, so it appears on your invoice at cost. Ground transport at either end is quoted per route. Our coordination fee is included in the total we quote you and itemized on your invoice.

Crate size is the single biggest lever, because it drives chargeable weight, and on a quoted lane it is the number the carrier prices from. After that it is the accompanied or unaccompanied question above, and the titer test, which adds a laboratory fee and lifts the endorsement from $101 to $160. Season matters too: summer heat embargoes in the United States narrow the booking window from May, and Israeli summers are hot at the other end. Two pets on one certificate share most of the endorsement, at $160 and then $10, while each extra pet adds its own crate, freight and test, and the exemption route caps you at two animals in any case.

Israeli requirements from the Ministry of Agriculture and Food Security service page on the import of dogs and cats into Israel and its published procedure for the import of dogs and cats, which carries the health conditions, the lifetime validity of the antibody test and the restricted breed list. Endorsement fees from the USDA APHIS Veterinary Services user fee schedule. Freight mechanics from the American Airlines Cargo live animal pages. Government requirements change, so every figure here is tied to the authority that publishes it. Verified September 2026.

Send us the route, the breed and roughly when you want to travel, and tell us whether you will be on the same flight. Request a quote and we will reply with an itemized plan, a timeline and clear next steps. For entry rules and the full paperwork timeline, see our guide to pet shipping requirements for Israel, or compare other routes on the pet shipping cost calculator.