What are the pet arrival and customs procedures at Lisbon Airport?

SHORT ANSWER

When your dog or cat lands at Lisbon's Humberto Delgado Airport from the United States, they do not go through a normal customs line. Instead, whoever is meeting your pet on the ground, whether that is you, an authorized traveling companion, or your pet relocation provider, reports to the airport's Traveler Entry Point, known in Portugal as the Ponto de Entrada dos Viajantes (PEV), where a government veterinarian checks the microchip, rabies vaccination, and official health certificate before your pet is legally allowed to enter Portugal and the European Union. This applies whether your pet travels on the same flight as you or arrives separately, since not every pet moves on the same itinerary as its owner. You must notify the PEV at least 48 hours before your pet's flight lands, and you will pay a small inspection fee on the spot, 42.25 euros for one animal or 84.50 euros for two or more (DGAV). Only once the veterinarian clears the paperwork can your pet be collected and taken toward the regular arrivals hall.

Where Pet Entry Control Actually Happens at Humberto Delgado Airport

Lisbon Airport, officially Aeroporto Humberto Delgado, is Portugal's main international gateway and the arrival point for the large majority of pet relocations coming from the United States. Unlike passenger luggage, dogs and cats arriving from outside the European Union are not simply picked up at a standard baggage carousel and walked out the door. Portugal's Direção-Geral de Alimentação e Veterinária (DGAV), the government agency responsible for animal health, operates a dedicated Traveler Entry Point, referenced in Portuguese documentation as the Ponto de Entrada dos Viajantes or PEV, inside the airport. This is the checkpoint where every non-EU dog or cat must be presented before their owner can leave with them (DGAV).

Travelers who have flown this route describe the practical flow well. One family who moved two dogs from Florida to Lisbon on TAP Air Portugal wrote that after landing, they "proceeded through customs and headed to the Oversized Baggage Claim area," where an airport employee eventually brought each crate out and the DGAV veterinarian opened them for inspection on the spot (r/PortugalExpats). In other words, the pet pickup point and the veterinary control point are the same location, and it is typically near the oversized or special baggage handling area rather than the standard carousel.

What Happens During the DGAV Veterinary Inspection

At the Traveler Entry Point, a government veterinarian, not an airline employee or a private clinic vet, reviews your dog or cat's documentation and physically checks the animal. This is the moment your entire preparation timeline gets tested. The inspection covers three things in order:

Identification. The vet scans for an ISO-compliant microchip, or checks for a legible tattoo if your pet was identified before July 3, 2011. The microchip number must match every document you are carrying, and the rabies vaccination date can never come before the identification date (DGAV).

Rabies vaccination status. The vaccine must have been given when your pet was at least twelve weeks old and already identified, and at least 21 days must have passed since a first-time vaccination before travel. A booster given within the manufacturer's required window also qualifies.

Health documentation. The vet checks your official veterinary health certificate, which must be issued by government-authorized channels rather than a routine clinic visit, along with your proof of rabies vaccination and microchip registration. For full detail on exactly which documents US pet owners need before they even board, see Portugal's official pet import rules for dogs and cats from the United States.

Because the United States sits on the list of countries considered low risk for rabies, your dog or cat is not required to complete the rabies antibody titer test or the accompanying waiting period that pets from higher-risk countries, including much of Africa, Brazil, Venezuela, and Ukraine, must complete before travel (DGAV). If the inspection reveals a documentation gap, missing vaccination timeline, or a microchip that will not scan, the consequences are severe: DGAV states clearly that noncompliant animals are sent back to their country of origin at the owner's expense, and in extreme cases the agency states euthanasia could be considered.

The 48-Hour Arrival Notice You Cannot Skip

This is the step most first-time movers overlook, and it is not optional. DGAV requires that the pet owner, or an authorized person traveling with the pet, contact the relevant Traveler Entry Point as early as possible and no later than 48 hours before arrival (DGAV). This notice is submitted using DGAV's own arrival form, available in Portuguese and English, and it must be sent to the correct Traveler Entry Point contact rather than a general DGAV email address. Documentation sent to the wrong address is not reviewed in time, and DGAV is explicit that this can create entry obstacles for your pet.

It is also worth noting that the notice must come from the owner or their authorized traveling companion, not the airline. Airlines transport the animal, but they are not the party responsible for satisfying Portugal's biosecurity notification requirement.

One detail specific to Lisbon that catches red-eye travelers off guard: the Traveler Entry Point at Humberto Delgado Airport is closed between midnight and 6:00 a.m. If your international flight lands during that window, your mandatory veterinary inspection takes place once the checkpoint reopens, which can mean a wait at the airport with your pet still in its travel crate (DGAV). Porto's airport follows a similar rule, with its checkpoint closed from 11:00 p.m. to 7:00 a.m. This is a strong argument for scheduling arrival flights that land comfortably within normal operating hours, something our team factors into every itinerary we help plan. For the full sequence of steps and typical timing from microchip to touchdown, see our complete US-to-Portugal moving timeline.

"Families are usually so focused on getting the paperwork right that they forget the paperwork has a delivery deadline too," said Georgiana Strait, Marketing Manager at Starwood Pet Travel. "Sending that arrival notice late, or to the wrong inbox, is one of the few mistakes that can hold up an otherwise perfectly compliant pet right at the finish line."

Do You Need to Declare Your Pet at Customs?

This is where Lisbon's process differs from what many travelers expect. There is no separate customs declaration form for a personal pet accompanying its owner. Because dogs and cats traveling with their owner, in a group of five or fewer and not intended for sale or transfer of ownership, are classified as non-commercial companion animal movements, the veterinary check at the Traveler Entry Point functions as the actual point where your pet is considered to enter the European Union (DGAV). You still pass through Portugal's regular passport control and customs channel for yourself and any dutiable goods you are carrying, but your pet itself is not a line item on a customs form.

That said, if you are transiting through Portugal on the way to another EU country rather than staying in Portugal, DGAV notes that both the veterinary control and the customs control for your connecting animal may need to happen together at the transfer point, and depending on your layover length, that inspection might only be possible to complete at your final destination instead. DGAV recommends confirming this directly with your airline or the relevant airport authority before you fly, since it does not maintain visibility into individual transit arrangements.

What the Inspection Costs and How Payment Works

DGAV charges a standard fee for the veterinary examination performed at the Traveler Entry Point: 42.25 euros for one animal, or 84.50 euros if you are traveling with two or more pets (DGAV). Service dogs assisting people with disabilities are exempt from this fee entirely. Travelers who have gone through the process at Lisbon report paying by credit card directly at the checkpoint once the veterinarian has cleared the paperwork, so it is worth having a card on hand rather than assuming cash is required. If you want a broader sense of what a full US-to-Portugal relocation runs, including transport and paperwork costs beyond this single airport fee, our cost breakdown for US-to-Portugal pet relocation walks through the full picture.

New EU Certificate Rules Changing Through 2026 and 2027

Pet owners planning a move in the coming months should know that the legal framework itself is shifting. Regulation (EU) 2026/131 replaced the previous rules under Regulation (EU) 576/2013, effective April 22, 2026, updating the EU's animal health framework for non-commercial pet movements. A new official certificate format becomes mandatory starting October 1, 2026. DGAV has built in a transition window: certificates using the older format under Regulation (EU) 577/2013 remain valid through March 31, 2027, but only if they were issued before October 1, 2026 (DGAV). If your travel date falls anywhere near that October cutoff, confirm with your certifying veterinarian which certificate version they are issuing, since using the wrong format after the deadline could delay your pet's entry.

We track the most common paperwork missteps that cause delays like this one in our breakdown of common causes of import delays, which is worth reviewing alongside this article if your move falls close to a regulatory transition date.

What Pet Owners Are Saying About the Real Arrival Experience

Firsthand accounts from other American pet owners tend to confirm just how procedural, but manageable, this process is in practice. In a widely shared post on r/PortugalExpats, one owner who flew two dogs from Florida to Lisbon on TAP described the moment of arrival plainly, noting that after landing they "proceeded through customs and headed to the Oversized Baggage Claim area" to wait for their dogs to be delivered for the DGAV inspection (r/PortugalExpats). The same traveler noted that the vet checked their original documents, they paid the inspection fee by credit card, and that was the entire process. Their biggest piece of advice for other movers: come prepared to clean up your pet on the spot, since the crate cannot legally be opened until the vet clears it, and airport staff will not have cleanup supplies on hand.

Planning Your Arrival at Lisbon Airport

The Lisbon Airport arrival process rewards preparation more than almost any other step in a US-to-Portugal pet move. Your documents need to be complete and accurate well before you board, your arrival notice needs to reach the correct Traveler Entry Point contact at least 48 hours ahead, and your flight timing should ideally avoid the midnight-to-6 a.m. closure window. Handled correctly, the actual inspection at the airport is typically quick. Handled incorrectly, it is the single most common point where an otherwise well-planned move gets delayed.

If you are still working through the earlier stages of your pet's move, our team has mapped out the complete timeline for moving a pet from the US to Portugal and answered the most common questions about Portugal's official import rules. Reach out to Starwood Pet Travel directly if you would like help coordinating your pet's documentation and arrival logistics from start to finish.

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