The EU Pet Passport
The EU Pet Passport is a small booklet issued by an authorised vet in an EU member state. It records the microchip number and implant date, every rabies vaccination with product, batch and validity dates, clinical examinations and any parasite treatments. Once issued it lasts the animal's lifetime, provided rabies boosters are never allowed to lapse. It covers dogs, cats and ferrets moving between EU countries for non-commercial reasons, with no more than five animals per person. This is the closest thing anywhere to a genuine passport for pets, and it works only inside the scheme it belongs to.
What non-residents use instead
If you live outside the EU, a vet there cannot issue you a passport — the booklet is for residents of the scheme. You travel instead on an EU animal health certificate, completed by an official vet in your own country, endorsed by the national animal-health authority, and issued within ten days of arrival in the EU. It is valid for a single entry, then for four months of onward movement inside the EU and for the return leg within that period. Residents of a handful of non-EU countries in the scheme, including Switzerland and Norway, do receive passports. Everyone else repeats the certificate for each trip.
Great Britain after Brexit
Great Britain left the EU scheme, and a passport issued in Great Britain is no longer accepted for travel to the EU. A pet leaving Britain for Europe needs an animal health certificate from an official vet, valid for one outward journey and issued within ten days of arrival. In the other direction, a pet entering Great Britain travels on an EU pet passport, an EU animal health certificate, or a Great Britain pet health certificate, depending on where the journey starts. Northern Ireland remains inside the EU scheme, so a passport issued there still works. It is the one place where the word means different things a short distance apart.
North America has no passport
Neither Canada nor the United States issues a pet passport, and any booklet sold under that name is a private product with no official standing. What counts in Canada is a rabies vaccination certificate signed by a licensed vet, in English or French, describing the animal clearly enough to match it. What counts for the United States is the CDC Dog Import Form for every dog, supported by rabies records where the dog comes from a high-risk country and a health certificate where the airline or the destination state asks for one. The United States does require an ISO microchip for the dogs it admits, so the chip is worth having in both directions.
Australia and other permit systems
Australia, New Zealand, Japan and Singapore have no passport either; they run import permits. A permit is applied for in advance, granted for a named animal and a date range, and it is the document that actually authorises entry. Behind it sits a file assembled in a fixed order: ISO microchip, rabies vaccination, an antibody test at an approved laboratory, parasite treatments and a government-endorsed veterinary certificate. A booklet you compile yourself has no standing in these systems. Treat any site selling an international pet passport as selling a folder to keep your paperwork in, not a document a border will recognise.