The process of moving abroad is stressful under even the most ‘normal’ of circumstances. Whether it’s selling a home, shipping belongings, finding a job/housing, or figuring out the visa process, it feels like the checklist is never-ending. Now imagine adding in everything that comes with moving two senior cats with serious chronic health issues to that mix! It feels worth it now that we successfully made it here, but it was definitely a bit anxiety-inducing while we were in the thick of it.
Preparing to Move
Unfortunately we couldn’t really start the moving preparation process until much later than I would have liked. My husband was applying to jobs in multiple countries/cities in Europe and we weren’t sure when and where he’d land a job. Once the job offer came in, the time crunch began. It’s crazy to think we did all of this in just 2.5 months!
Finding a Pet-Friendly Apartment
For those who don’t know, the rental market in the Netherlands at the moment is kind of a hot mess. Prices just keep going up while inventory stays shockingly low. And it’s even worse if you’re trying to move with cats. Basically for every 10 to 20 apartments you find online, you’re lucky if 1 or 2 of them allows pets! If it wasn’t for the relocation company we were working with, I honestly don’t know how we would have managed. Even with their help, in the short time we had we were only able to find a single apartment in our price range that had (most of) what we were looking for AND accepted pets.
One unique thing about the Netherlands that we’d never had to do in the US was writing our prospective landlord an introduction letter. We basically had to sell ourselves as tenants, as well as talk about how cute and well behaved the cats are. Apparently it worked because we got the place!
Choosing the Right Airline
Some airlines are more pet-friendly than others. When we first started to discuss moving abroad, we seriously considered flying semi-private because I was so worried the cats (and my anxiety) wouldn’t handle it well. But as you’d probably expect it was way too cost prohibitive. Think around $10k+ just for one person and both cats! So we moved on to researching which airline would work best for our situation.
I knew I only wanted to fly with them in the cabin with us, which eliminated less airlines than I expected. After digging into all the specifics of each airline (additional fees, weight limits, carrier size, number of pets allowed per plane), we narrowed it down to Delta and United. As much as I would have preferred to fly Delta, United’s direct flight from Newark to Amsterdam was the cheapest option with the least restrictions. Below you’ll find my breakdown of all the different airline policies as of early 2026 – head to their websites for the most detailed and up-to-date info. Obviously this doesn’t cover every airline, just the ones that were available in our area.
| Airline | International Pet Travel Policy |
|---|---|
| United | Allowed in-cabin only (no cargo), for an additional fee. No pet weight limit. Soft Carrier Size Limit: 11 x 18 x 11 in. Limited # of pets allowed per flight. |
| Delta | Allowed in-cabin for an additional fee. No pet weight limit. Soft Carrier Size Limit: 11 x 18 x 11 in. Limited # of pets allowed per flight. |
| JetBlue | Doesn’t allow pets on flights between the United States and the EU. |
| Iberia | Allowed in-cabin for an additional fee. 17.6lb (8kg) weight limit, including carrier. Soft Carrier Size Limit: 9.8 x 17.7 x 13.7 in. Limited # of pets allowed per flight. |
| Icelandair | Pets can’t fly in-cabin, can only be shipped internationally via Icelandair Cargo. |
| Finnair | Allowed in-cabin for an additional fee. 17.6lb (8kg) weight limit, including carrier. Soft Carrier Size Limit: 9.1 x 21.7 x 15.7 in. Limited # of pets allowed per flight. |
| American | As “checked baggage” only on flights between the United States and the EU. |
| Lufthansa | Allowed in-cabin for an additional fee. 17.6lb (8kg) weight limit, including carrier. Soft Carrier Size Limit: 9 x 22 x 16 in. Limited # of pets allowed per flight. |
| Aer Lingus | Pets can’t fly in-cabin, can only be shipped internationally via IAG Cargo. |
| Condor | Allowed in-cabin for an additional fee. 17.6lb (8kg) weight limit, including carrier. Soft Carrier Size Limit: 9 x 21.7 x 15.7 in. Limited # of pets allowed per flight. |
| British Airways | Pets can’t fly in-cabin, can only be shipped internationally via IAG Cargo. |
| KLM | Allowed in-cabin for an additional fee. 17.6lb (8kg) weight limit, including carrier. Soft Carrier Size Limit: 9 x 18 x 11 in. Limited # of pets allowed per flight. |
| Singapore | Can only travel as checked baggage on your flight. |
Make sure to double check after you purchase your cat’s ticket that it has been confirmed and added to your personal flight ticket. Only so many pets are allowed per flight, so it’s important to do this as soon as possible after purchasing your ticket. We checked twice before we even got to the airport and it still only showed on one of our reservations – even though it also said we’d paid for two. We waited to buy new soft carriers until after we’d chosen the airline so we knew the correct dimensions. These Petsfit Expandable Carriers were perfect! They worked well for both our cats who are different sizes (9.5lbs vs 13.5lbs). The expandable sides were great for giving them more space to relax while we were in the airport.
Pre-Move Vet Appointments
The biggest thing to know when moving pets from the United States to an EU country is you’ll need to find a USDA certified vet to begin the process of obtaining an EU Health Certificate. Basically this proves your pet is healthy enough to travel and be imported into your destination country. Keep in mind that requirements vary depending on where you’re going and in many instances the guidelines are stricter for dogs. Thankfully we just needed EU compliant microchips and the completed health certificate.
The cats’ microchips, of course, weren’t the correct ones. Our usual vet was able to insert the new ones, as well as give them the required updated vaccinations. Unfortunately their USDA certification hadn’t been renewed, so we had to drive down to our old neighborhood vet to complete the process. One thing to be aware of, vets won’t schedule these USDA certificate appointments until you have your flight booked. This is because they have to submit the paperwork within 10 days of your departure date. Once the forms are approved by the USDA they will be overnighted back to you. Overall this entire process (new chips/vaccines/USDA appointment) cost approximately $1,300.
In addition to the USDA-specific vet trips, we also had to re-up all of Bryce’s diabetes and acromegaly medications, as well as both boys’ veterinary diet foods. Surprisingly, when we got to the Netherlands we realized we could order their food easily without a prescription! In order to keep the meds cool in the airport and on the flight, we bought the 4Allfamily Nomad Big Insulin Cooler. It says it fits 7 pens, but we could barely squeeze in 4 plus the gabapentin! We had no issues taking it through security and everything stayed cold for our 15 hour travel day.
The Move Itself
The move actually started a few days before we even left the United States. We signed all the sale paperwork and moved out of our house in Philadelphia 4 days before our flight to Amsterdam. And of course as was our luck, the USDA forms weren’t ready before we moved out of the house. Which meant Jasper had to drive back down to Philly the next day to pick them up.
Pre-Flight Stay in Newark
We spent the few days before our flight hanging out in Newark at a pet-friendly hotel, the Home2Suites by Hilton. I’m not going to lie, it was just okay. I definitely wouldn’t recommend it for more than a night or two! There’s no food nearby or in the hotel itself (besides snacks) and the delivery options left much to be desired. We also had to switch rooms immediately after arriving because the fridge wasn’t working, which we needed to keep Bryce’s insulin cold. And in the second room the fridge ran so loudly that we had trouble sleeping. Besides some initial skittishness, the boys settled in after about a day.
We unfortunately learned that late checkout wasn’t as late as we had thought (noon instead of 2pm), so on our travel day the cats had to be in their carriers for longer than we’d planned. Since we didn’t want to sit in the hotel lobby for 2 hours, we gave both cats their gabapentin and headed to the airport early.
The Airport & Flight
Generally you can’t check baggage in for international flights until 3-4 hours before, and we ended up getting to Newark Airport 5 hours before our flight. Luckily, since we had to check in the cats they also allowed us to check all of our bags early! The process with United was pretty straightforward: show our passports and the cats’ travel paperwork, get their in-cabin pet tags, and then we were good to head over to security.
The TSA lines were mercifully short (so glad we have PreCheck!) and the boys did surprisingly well with coming out of their carriers so we could put the carriers through the scanner. So many people told us how great they were doing, and how their cats would’ve been losing their minds! As much as I didn’t like to do it, we chose to skip Bryce’s evening insulin dose on our travel day, as approved by our vet. We were worried about him either throwing up or not eating enough pre-dose and everyone decided it was safer to hold off.
Everything at the airport went smoothly and it was once we got on the plane that we hit some snags. The fit under the seat was a little more snug than I’d hoped so it wasn’t super easy to get the bags in and out to check on them. Then Bryce had an accident in his carrier about 2 hours into the flight since he wouldn’t use the litterbox in the airport. We weren’t super surprised, since cats with insulin resistance pee a lot. And the one time I got up to stretch my legs and go to the bathroom, poor Nittaly started freaking out that I was gone. He thankfully calmed right back down once I was back in my seat.
Declaring the Cats at Customs
Once we got to Amsterdam Schiphol, the process of leaving was much simpler than I expected! After going through the new Entry/Exit System (which only took us at most 10 minutes) and grabbing our bags, we headed to the red “Goods to Declare” lane. Once there they scanned both of the cats’ microchips and reviewed their EU health certificates, and maybe 15 minutes later we were on our way! There was no mandatory quarantine period so we were allowed to take them straight home. Funny enough, we saw the customs guy we dealt with on TV a few weeks later on a RTL 5 reality show called Schiphol Airport.
Moving Abroad: Lessons Learned
No matter how much you prepare, something is bound to go wrong or be forgotten when moving abroad with cats. Knowing what I know now, these are a few things I’d have done differently!
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Test out new litter at home. Our cats use clay-based litter, which apparently doesn’t scan well at TSA so we opted to use an organic tofu litter on our travel day. We didn’t think to do a test run of the new litter ahead of time and Bryce didn’t understand the pellets were supposed to be litter. He kept trying to eat them!
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If you have skittish indoor cats, get them used to being in the outside world. If we’d had more time, we would have tried taking the cats for more car rides or shopping in PetSmart. Really anything that could have gotten them a bit more desensitized to being in their carriers for long periods of time and in public spaces.
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Order all your pet supplies ahead of time to be delivered to your new home. I thought it’d be easy to run out quick the morning we got here, but there was nowhere within walking distance of our apartment that sold litterboxes. We were running on fumes so we quickly ordered some to be delivered. Unfortunately said delivery took FOREVER and we ended up having to use a makeshift litter box for nearly a week.
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Reach out to a new vet before you move. This is especially important if your pet has complex medical issues. We researched and found a vet near our new place, but in the craziness of our short moving timeline we forgot to actually reach out. We luckily were able to get an appointment scheduled pretty quickly, but you don’t want to assume – especially if you need prescription refills in a timely manner!
Have you moved abroad with cats or other pets? How did it go? Let me know in the comments!
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