Author: SwiftCargo Team

Search “pet export health certificate Australia” and several of the first results use that phrase interchangeably with “fit to fly certificate,” as though the two were the same document issued by the same authority. They are not. One is a welfare opinion any vet can write on a prescription pad. The other is a government paper generated by DAFF and endorsed by a departmental officer, and it is the document Australia’s border actually relies on. The gap between the two is exactly where owners get caught out, usually a day or two before a flight, when someone finally asks which one they actually have.

Fit-to-Fly Letter Versus the Official Export Health Certificate

A fit-to-fly letter is informal by design. Any registered vet can write one. It confirms an animal appears healthy enough to travel, and airlines or pet transport companies sometimes ask for one as an extra layer of reassurance. It carries no government authority and satisfies no export legislation on its own. The export health certificate is a different category of document entirely: a formal paper certificate, generated by a DAFF regional officer under the Export Control Act 2020 and the Export Control (Animals) Rules 2021. It confirms the department itself is satisfied the animal has been prepared and examined in line with the destination country’s requirements. A fit-to-fly letter can exist alongside the official process. It cannot replace any part of it.

The Destination Country Sets the Declarations

DAFF does not decide what your pet’s export health certificate says. The importing country does. Every declaration on the certificate exists because the destination country’s own published requirements demand it: every test result, treatment record or statement it has to carry. DAFF’s role is to confirm those requirements have genuinely been met before endorsing the document. This is precisely why DAFF will not issue a health certificate based on information from a pet transport company or a website other than the official source of the importing country’s own government. Secondhand summaries of “what most countries want” are not an acceptable substitute for what your specific destination’s authority actually requires.

MICoR and Destination Permits

DAFF maintains the specific, country-by-country version of those requirements in the Manual of Importing Country Requirements (MICoR). This is the same reference the department checks your paperwork against, so it’s worth checking yourself before assuming your destination’s rules match a friend’s experience with a different country.

A second point causes similar confusion: your Australian export health certificate is not the same thing as your destination country’s own import permit. They are separate documents, issued by separate authorities, running on separate timelines. Thailand specifically calls this the “Official Health Certificate,” or OHC, a term our Thailand’s import permit forms: R.1/1, R.6 and R.7 guide explains in full, including its roughly 10-day validity window from government endorsement. That OHC is this same certificate, viewed from the receiving end rather than the issuing end, not a different document.

The Registered Veterinarian’s Role

Your own registered vet carries out the final health and welfare examination and documents the clinical findings the certificate depends on: treatments given, tests performed, results recorded. This is the same vet recommended for booking alongside the Notice of Intention to Export. DAFF’s own guidance for veterinarians sets out this role, and the role stops short of government authority. The registered vet documents and attests to the animal’s clinical state. They do not, on their own, issue the export certificate.

The DAFF Certifying Officer’s Role

That authority sits with a different person entirely: the department’s certifying officer. Per DAFF’s guidance on veterinarians preparing companion animals for export, the certifying officer appointment happens after the registered vet’s final health and welfare examination, and at that appointment you present everything the vet has completed alongside any other relevant paperwork: import permits if required, vaccination certificates, the rest of the file. The certifying officer reviews that documentation and determines whether the animal has actually qualified for export. This is the moment the export permit and the health certificate come into existence as government documents. A fit-to-fly letter never reaches this step, because no government officer is ever involved in writing one.

Government Endorsement

“Endorsement” is doing real legal work in this process, not just formality. A completed set of veterinary documentation, however thorough, is not an export certificate until a DAFF certifying officer has reviewed it and formally signed off. DAFF’s own export documents and certification guidance confirms that exporters of live animals work from paper certificates generated by the department’s own regional officers, not templates an owner or agent fills in independently. Before that endorsement, what you’re holding is a well-prepared file. After it, you’re holding the document that actually authorises the export.

Final Examination Timing

The registered vet’s final health and welfare examination has to fall within 72 hours of departure, or a shorter period if the destination country’s own requirements set one. This is tighter than most owners expect from a document they associate with routine paperwork. It’s the reason early preparation, everything covered in our Notice of Intention guide, matters here. Nothing about the certificate’s legal validity comes from your pet being generally healthy months in advance. It comes from a specific examination inside a specific, short window right before travel.

The Export-Permit Window

The certifying officer appointment follows the same logic: it has to happen within 72 hours of the scheduled departure time, after the vet’s own exam. In practice, that means the entire government-side issuance of your export permit and health certificate compresses into the final three days before a flight, not because DAFF is slow to act but because the whole point of the timing rule is to certify the animal’s condition as close to the actual travel date as the process allows. This reconciles cleanly with the destination-side validity windows this cluster has covered elsewhere. Thailand’s own roughly 10-day OHC validity window is looser than Australia’s 72-hour issuance window, so a certificate that satisfies DAFF’s timing automatically satisfies Thailand’s too. That isn’t a coincidence: both countries’ rules converge on “close to the actual flight,” measured from each end.

Originals and the Crate Document Pouch

Physical originals matter here, not photocopies. Key certificates should travel as originals rather than copies (the rabies vaccination record among them), and the completed health certificate and any relevant import permits need to travel with the animal itself, not be emailed ahead or left with a departure-side agent. The travel container also has its own requirement chain: it must meet IATA live-animal transport standards, be new or disinfected, and be presented to the registered vet before use so the vet’s own sign-off covers the crate as well as the animal. SwiftCargo’s standard practice is to assemble a dedicated document pouch, secured to the crate itself, containing every original the airline and destination authorities will ask to see. “The paperwork travels with the pet” is an operational rule here, not a reminder to pack it somewhere sensible.

Here is a detail that quietly stops certificates: the microchip number, usually fifteen digits long. It is what ties the rabies vaccination record, any laboratory results, the destination’s import permit and the health certificate to one specific animal, and officials at both ends check that it matches on every page. One transposed digit on a vaccination record from three years ago breaks that chain, and so does an owner’s name spelled differently on the permit and the certificate. Before the final examination, ask the vet to scan the chip and read the number aloud while you check it against every document in the pouch. It takes five minutes, and a record is much easier to correct then than inside the 72-hour window.

Flight Cancellation or Amendment

Because the whole certification chain is built around a roughly 72-hour pre-departure window, a real flight delay or cancellation after the certificate has already been endorsed is a genuine problem, not a minor scheduling footnote. If the actual travel date moves meaningfully, the examination and certifying-officer appointment that were timed against the original date may no longer cover the new one. Treat any significant schedule change as a reason to contact DAFF or your pet transport agent immediately, rather than assuming existing paperwork carries over. The specific answer depends on how far the date has moved and exactly what the destination country’s own requirements allow, which is worth confirming for your situation rather than assuming from a general rule.

It is worth pricing that risk before you book rather than after the date moves. Choosing a departure is a bet on schedule reliability, and the two sides of it are not priced the same. If the flight holds, a conservatively chosen slot buys you nothing you can point to. If it moves outside the window, you pay for a repeat veterinary examination, a second certifying-officer appointment, and whatever the airline’s next available animal-hold slot turns out to be, which in peak season can run to weeks. Owners tend to judge that choice by how the last trip went, which is the wrong test, because a booking that happened to hold was not necessarily the better bet. A morning departure on a route with a spare same-day service is a materially different position from a tight connection that only operates once a week, even when the two fares look identical.

Record Retention

DAFF requires exporters to retain all records from the export process for at least two years. Registered vets separately keep their own clinical records under their state or territory’s veterinary board requirements. Keep your own copies well past that floor in practice. If this move is a temporary posting rather than a one-way trip, the same export file becomes part of the baseline evidence your pet needs for the return leg. Our preparing your pet to return to Australia before you leave guide walks through that requirement in full. A folder you never need is a minor inconvenience. A folder you need and don’t have is a much bigger one.

A Document Ownership Map

Five different parties touch this process, and each one owns a specific, non-overlapping piece of it. Use this to work out who to ask when something is unclear.

Party	What they own	When
Owner / exporter	Submitting the NOI, booking appointments, assembling and retaining the full document file, presenting originals at the crate	From initial planning through departure, and for at least 2 years after
Registered veterinarian	Final health and welfare examination, clinical documentation, treatments and test results, container inspection	Within 72 hours of departure (or a shorter destination-set window)
DAFF certifying officer	Reviewing the completed file, determining export eligibility, formally endorsing the export permit and health certificate	After the vet exam, within 72 hours of scheduled departure
Airline / pet transport agent	IATA-compliant crate handling, accepting the document pouch with originals, may separately request a fit-to-fly letter	At check-in and throughout transit
Destination authority	Setting the declarations the certificate must contain (via MICoR); issuing its own separate import permit; verifying the certificate’s validity window on arrival	Before export (declarations) and on arrival (verification)

This entire map runs in the opposite direction for a pet coming into Australia rather than leaving it: different evidence, different government system, different timing rules entirely. Owners managing that side of a move should read our companion guide to Australian pet import permits and the BICON system rather than assuming the export process described here runs in reverse.

For the practical side of coordinating vets, DAFF appointments and destination-country paperwork against a single flight date, get a pet transport quote from SwiftCargo before the 72-hour window is the only runway left to work with.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the difference between a fit-to-fly letter and an export health certificate?

A fit-to-fly letter is an informal welfare check any vet can write, confirming an animal looks well enough to travel. Airlines sometimes ask for one, but it carries no government authority. The export health certificate is a government document, generated by DAFF and endorsed by a certifying officer, and it is what actually authorises your pet’s legal export from Australia. One is a courtesy note; the other is the paperwork the border relies on.

Who decides what has to be written on my pet’s export health certificate?

The destination country does, not DAFF. DAFF builds and endorses the certificate to satisfy the specific declarations the importing country requires, referenced through the Manual of Importing Country Requirements (MICoR). DAFF will not issue a certificate based on information from a pet transport company or a third-party website; only the destination country’s own official government source qualifies.

How close to my flight does the final veterinary examination need to happen?

Within 72 hours of departure, or a shorter period if the importing country’s own requirements set one. The DAFF certifying officer appointment then follows the vet exam, also within 72 hours of the scheduled departure time, which is why this entire stage of the process compresses into the final days before a flight rather than spreading out comfortably in advance.

What happens to my pet’s export health certificate if a flight is delayed or cancelled?

Treat it as a real risk to the paperwork, not just an inconvenience. Because the final exam and certifying officer appointment are both tied to a roughly 72-hour window before the scheduled departure, a meaningful delay or cancellation can push your actual travel date outside the window the certificate was issued against. Contact DAFF or your pet transport agent as soon as a schedule change looks likely, rather than assuming the existing paperwork still applies.

How long do I need to keep my pet’s export documents?

DAFF requires exporters to keep all records from the export process for at least two years. Keep them longer in practice: the same file becomes part of the baseline record your pet needs if you ever plan to bring it back into Australia.

Is the Australian export health certificate the same thing as the destination country’s import permit?

No, and this is one of the most common mix-ups in the whole process. The Australian export health certificate is issued on this end, by DAFF, to authorise the animal leaving Australia. The destination country’s import permit is a completely separate document, issued by that country’s own authority, required to let the animal in. Both have to exist, they run on independent timelines, and neither substitutes for the other.

Ask someone who has already exported a pet from Australia which document actually started the process, and most will say the health certificate, or the import permit for wherever the animal was going. Almost none of them will say the Notice of Intention to Export. It’s the plain, unglamorous form that has to reach DAFF at least ten working days before anything else in this story can happen, and most first-time movers don’t know it exists until a pet transport agent mentions it.

Here’s the reassuring part: once you know what it is, the NOI is genuinely one of the more straightforward pieces of the whole export process. It isn’t the hard part. It’s the part that has to happen first, correctly, so that the harder parts later actually have time to work.

What the NOI Actually Is

The Notice of Intention to Export Live Animals (other than Livestock), or NOI for short, is the official DAFF form that opens your pet’s export file. It’s part of the wider process DAFF sets out on its exporting companion animals page. You’ll find the form itself among the forms for exporting non-livestock animals. It exists to do two things at once: let DAFF check your preparation plan against the destination country’s specific requirements, and book the appointments (a final veterinary exam, then a DAFF certifying officer review) that eventually produce the export permit and health certificate. Nothing about the actual export happens without this form landing first.

What the NOI Is Not

It is not the export permit, and it is not the health certificate. Those are separate documents, issued later, once a DAFF certifying officer is satisfied your pet has actually been prepared according to the destination country’s rules. We cover that document in full in a companion guide of ours: export health certificates for pets leaving Australia. It is also not an import permit for wherever you’re going; that’s a separate process run by the destination country’s own authorities, covered for the Thailand route in our guide to Thailand’s import permit forms. The NOI is closer to a formal heads-up with a deadline attached than a final approval. Getting a positive response to your NOI is genuinely good news. It confirms your plan as viable; it doesn’t mean the process is finished.

Who Submits It

The exporter completes the NOI and emails it, with supporting documents, to the regional DAFF office for the state or territory the animal is actually departing from. That’s usually the pet’s owner or a pet transport agent acting on the owner’s behalf. That regional detail matters: submitting to the wrong office is an easy, avoidable way to lose days you don’t have to spare against a ten-working-day floor.

Required Route and Pet Details

The form needs the specifics DAFF actually assesses: the owner or exporter’s contact details, the animal’s identification (species, and the microchip number that has to match every other document in the file exactly), the intended destination country, and the planned export route and date. Vague or placeholder information here is one of the more common reasons a straightforward NOI turns into a query-and-wait situation: a “likely” destination instead of a confirmed one, or an approximate date instead of an actual booked window.

It’s worth being specific about why this matters more than it looks like it should. DAFF isn’t collecting these details to fill in a database field. It’s using them to decide, right at the start, whether your plan is even structurally viable before anyone books a vet appointment or pays a certifying-officer fee. A destination country listed as “somewhere in Southeast Asia, still deciding” tells DAFF nothing it can check against MICoR. A confirmed destination, even one that later changes, gives the department something real to assess. If your travel plans are still genuinely open, it’s better to wait a few extra days until they’re not than to submit a NOI built around a placeholder.

Supporting Destination Conditions

DAFF doesn’t assess your NOI in a vacuum. It checks your stated preparation plan against the specific importing country’s published requirements, which DAFF maintains through the Manual of Importing Country Requirements (MICoR). Different destinations set different rules on vaccination timing, testing, and documentation format. MICoR is the reference DAFF itself uses, so it’s worth checking your destination’s current entry before you submit, rather than relying on secondhand advice about what “most countries” require. MICoR is reviewed regularly, but importing countries can and do change their own requirements without notifying DAFF directly, which is part of why the department checks your specific plan rather than approving on a generic template.

The 10-Working-Day Rule

Submit the NOI at least 10 working days before your departure date, or, if your destination requires pre-export isolation, before the isolation period is due to start, whichever falls first. Treat ten working days as a floor, not a comfortable target. Submitting right at that limit leaves DAFF no room to come back with a question without your own timeline absorbing the delay. Questions are common enough on first submissions that building in extra runway is worth far more than it costs.

The phrase doing the work in that rule is “working days”, and a calendar does not show them. Most people count back two weeks and stop, because the form’s unit and the reader’s mental unit differ only in weekends for most of the year. Public holidays widen the gap without warning. For a flight on Thursday 7 January 2027, Christmas Day, the Boxing Day holiday on Monday 28 December (the 26th falls on a Saturday) and New Year’s Day all drop out of the count, so ten working days reach back to around 21 December, more than a fortnight before departure. Commonwealth offices also commonly run reduced services between Christmas and New Year. If your flight falls near Easter, Christmas or a state holiday such as Melbourne Cup Day in Victoria, ask the regional office which days it counts before you set your submission date.

Pre-Export Isolation Implications

Most companion animals leaving Australia do not need pre-export isolation. Where it is required, it’s because the specific destination country’s import conditions call for it. The timeframe and the location both follow that country’s rules, not a general Australian standard, which is another reason the MICoR check above matters before you assume either way. If your destination does require isolation, that requirement moves your real deadline earlier: the 10-working-day submission rule then counts back from the start of isolation, not from your flight date.

The DAFF Appointment

Your NOI is also what books your pre-export appointment chain. DAFF’s own guidance for veterinarians preparing companion animals for export recommends arranging your final veterinary examination with your registered vet at the same time you submit the NOI. That’s specifically so both appointments land inside the timeframes each one requires relative to your actual departure: the vet exam and the subsequent DAFF certifying officer review. That appointment sequencing, and its tight timing window, get the full treatment in export health certificates. The point to take from this article is that the NOI is the trigger that starts that clock. Submitting it casually, without also locking in the vet appointment, undermines the whole point of submitting it early.

What Happens After Submission

DAFF reviews the NOI to confirm the information is complete and that your preparation plan looks sufficient to meet the destination country’s requirements. If it is, you’ll be advised the NOI is approved, which unlocks the next stage rather than the finish line. Approval of the NOI does not by itself mean DAFF will issue the export permit and health certificate; those follow only once the department is satisfied your pet has actually been prepared exactly as planned, confirmed at the appointments the NOI booked.

Flight Changes

A flight change after NOI submission is not automatically a problem, but it is something to actively manage rather than mention in passing. Because the whole appointment chain (vet exam, certifying officer review, eventual certificate endorsement) is anchored to the departure date you gave DAFF, a meaningful shift in that date can knock appointments outside the windows they need to fall inside. If your travel dates move by more than a few days after submitting, confirm with DAFF or your pet transport agent promptly, rather than assuming the original timeline still holds.

Worked Example: Building Your Timeline Backward From a Flight Date

The clearest way to see how the NOI fits into the wider process is to build a timeline backward from a confirmed departure, rather than forward from today. Take a Melbourne-based owner with a cat confirmed to fly to Bangkok on a Thursday in eight weeks. Working backward: the flight date is fixed first. Ten working days works out to roughly two calendar weeks, accounting for weekends. That’s the absolute latest the NOI can land with the Victorian regional office. This owner submits it a full four weeks out instead, deliberately building in a buffer against any query DAFF might raise. At the same time as the NOI, they book the final veterinary examination with their registered vet, timed to fall inside the window that appointment needs relative to the flight date. They book the certifying officer appointment once the vet exam is confirmed, again timing it against the same fixed flight date. Every appointment in this chain points back to the same anchor, the actual booked flight, which is exactly why a late flight change ripples through the whole sequence instead of affecting just one step.

Notice what this owner did not do: wait until the flight was six weeks away to start thinking about paperwork, or submit the NOI with a placeholder date because the exact flight wasn’t booked yet. Both of those choices are common, and both of them are what turn a routine process into a rushed one.

Common Errors

• Submitting inside the 10-working-day floor. The minimum is a legal floor, not a safety margin. Treat it as the latest possible date, not the planned one.
• Mistaking NOI approval for the export permit. Approval confirms your plan is viable; it doesn’t mean the permit or health certificate exist yet.
• Vague destination or date details. A placeholder country or an approximate travel window forces DAFF to come back with questions instead of assessing cleanly.
• Not booking the vet exam alongside the NOI. Submitting the form without also locking in the final veterinary appointment defeats the purpose of DAFF’s own recommended sequencing.
• Ignoring destination-specific conditions. Assuming your destination’s requirements match what a friend’s pet needed for a different country, instead of checking MICoR for your actual destination.
• Using an outdated form version. Downloading an old copy of the NOI PDF from a bookmark or a third-party site instead of the current version on DAFF’s own page.

An Annotated NOI Example

The table below shows the kind of information a completed NOI actually contains, using a fictional example (no real applicant’s details) to show what each field is doing.

NOI field	Example entry (fictional)	What it’s actually for
Exporter / owner name and contact details	R. Halloway, mobile and email supplied	The person DAFF corresponds with for this file
Animal identification	Domestic cat, microchip 981000456789123	Must match every later document (vet certificate, export permit) exactly
Destination country	Thailand	Determines which MICoR conditions DAFF checks the plan against
Proposed export date	Confirmed flight date, not an estimate	Sets the 10-working-day submission deadline and anchors every later appointment window
Departure point / regional office	Sydney (NSW regional office)	Determines which DAFF office actually receives and assesses the NOI
Pre-export isolation required?	Not required for this destination (confirmed via MICoR)	If yes, moves the effective submission deadline earlier
Preparation plan summary	Vaccination and documentation schedule aligned to destination requirements	What DAFF actually assesses the NOI against

Every field on that form is doing real work. DAFF is using it to decide whether your plan, as described, can realistically produce a compliant export permit and health certificate by your departure date. The NOI and the destination country’s own import paperwork run on parallel, independent clocks that both need to land before your actual flight date, not sequentially. That detail is covered from the receiving end in Thailand’s import permit forms R.1/1, R.6 and R.7. And if this move is a temporary posting rather than a one-way trip, it’s worth reading our guide to preparing your pet to return to Australia before you leave alongside this one: the NOI paperwork you file now becomes part of the baseline record your pet needs for the trip home.

SwiftCargo’s pet transport team submits NOIs inside a comfortable margin ahead of the 10-working-day floor as standard practice, and books the vet appointment in the same conversation rather than as an afterthought. Get in touch before you confirm flights, since the flight date is what starts every clock this article has described.

Related reading: Destination, Not Size, Drives International Pet Transport Cost

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the Notice of Intention to Export for a pet leaving Australia?

It’s the form that starts the entire export process. Officially the Notice of Intention (NOI) to Export Live Animals (other than Livestock), it tells DAFF you plan to export a specific animal, on a specific route, and lets DAFF check your preparation plan against the destination country’s requirements and book the appointments that follow.

Is the Notice of Intention to Export the same as the export permit?

No. The NOI is the notification that opens the file and books the pipeline. The export permit and the health certificate are separate documents issued later, once DAFF’s certifying officer has confirmed your pet has actually been prepared in line with the destination country’s requirements. NOI approval means DAFF thinks your plan is sound, not that the paperwork is finished.

How early do I need to submit the Notice of Intention to Export?

At least 10 working days before your departure date or, if the destination country requires pre-export isolation, before the isolation period begins, whichever comes first. Ten working days is a floor, not a comfortable target; submitting right at that limit leaves no room for DAFF to query anything without your timeline slipping.

Do all pets need pre-export isolation before leaving Australia?

No. In most cases, pre-export isolation is not required for companion animals leaving Australia. Where it is required, it’s because the specific destination country’s conditions call for it, and the timeframe and location follow that country’s own rules. Check the requirements for your actual destination before assuming either way.

Can I change my flight after submitting the Notice of Intention to Export?

You can, but treat any date change as something to actively manage, not something to mention in passing. The NOI’s 10-working-day clock and the appointments booked off the back of it are anchored to the departure date you originally gave DAFF. A meaningful shift can affect whether your final veterinary exam and certifying appointment still land inside their own required windows. Confirm with DAFF or your pet transport agent as soon as a flight change is even likely.

What is the most common mistake owners make with the Notice of Intention to Export?

Treating NOI approval as the finish line. Owners submit the form, get a response that sounds positive, and relax. In fact, the harder, date-sensitive part is still ahead: the final veterinary examination and the certifying officer appointment, both tied tightly to the actual departure date. The NOI opens the door; it doesn’t walk you through it.

Two applications for the same route, filed in the same week, rarely take the same number of weeks to clear. DAFF does not publish a fixed processing time for cat and dog import permits, and the reason has less to do with case backlogs than with a mechanical fact almost no first-time applicant is told: an assessor works through a BICON file in order, and stops at the first mismatch between what the application claims and what the attached evidence actually shows. Every stop adds days.

The Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry (DAFF) uses BICON, the Biosecurity Import Conditions system, to decide whether a specific animal, on a specific route, meets Australia’s biosecurity requirements before it is allowed in. The system itself is not complicated by design. Most of what turns a straightforward approval into a stalled file is avoidable, and nearly all of it traces back to the same handful of predictable errors.

Who Actually Needs an Import Permit

Every cat or dog entering Australia needs an import permit obtained through BICON before travel, with a narrower, lower-evidence pathway for New Zealand and Norfolk Island under DAFF’s own step-by-step import guides. That requirement does not soften for pets with an Australian history. Take a dog that spent its whole life in Sydney before an owner’s two-year posting to Bangkok: it returns to exactly the same permit process as a dog that has never set foot in the country. DAFF’s framework evaluates where the animal has actually lived immediately before the trip, not where it lived before that. Owners planning a move that includes time overseas should read this permit process alongside our guide on preparing a pet to return to Australia before you leave. The same evidence trail this article covers is what an Australian-origin pet needs rebuilt for the return leg.

What BICON Actually Is

BICON is not the permit. It is the online system DAFF uses to publish country-and-species-specific import conditions and to receive, track and assess the application itself. Search BICON for “dogs” or “cats” from a specific country of origin and it returns the exact document list, testing requirements and quarantine implications that apply to that route. Conditions differ meaningfully by country group, which is why two owners moving from different countries can face entirely different paperwork for what looks, at a glance, like the same move. The permit is the output of that process: a formal document confirming DAFF has reviewed the evidence and approved that specific animal for import under stated conditions.

Evidence by Country Group

DAFF sorts import origins into risk-based groups, and the group determines how much evidence an application needs. New Zealand and Norfolk Island sit in Group 1. Group 1 carries the lightest evidence load. Group 2 includes a mix of countries and territories, Singapore among them. Singapore matters directly to this cluster: it is the staging country most Thailand-based Australians eventually route their pet’s return through, as covered in our comparison of staging options for the Thailand-to-Australia route. Group 3 countries carry the full evidence load: microchip, vaccination, an RNATT blood test, the associated wait period, and closer scrutiny of every supporting document. Thailand itself sits outside every approved group, which is why the 180-day approved-country rule exists as a separate, additional hurdle for Thailand-origin pets rather than something this permit alone resolves. Group membership is reviewed periodically, so confirm your specific country’s current classification directly in BICON before assembling an evidence pack around an assumption.

Identity and RNATT Evidence

For Group 3 origins, the application has to include a copy of the RNATT laboratory report and the accompanying RNATT declaration, endorsed by an official government veterinarian employed by the exporting country’s competent authority, not just a private clinic printout. This is where identity evidence and test evidence have to line up exactly: the microchip number on the RNATT paperwork has to match the number on the vaccination record and the number typed into the BICON application itself, character for character. Our companion article on how the RNATT test actually works covers the sequencing rule behind this evidence in full: identity has to be verified before the rest of the chain is considered valid, not after.

Application Charges

DAFF’s published fee schedule sets a $130 application charge for an import permit, on top of a separate initial assessment fee that varies by the category of the goods and how long DAFF expects the assessment to take. Both amounts are due upfront. The department does not begin assessing an application until the application charge and the initial assessment fee have both cleared. Treat the combined cost as case-specific, not a single number you can budget from a generic figure quoted elsewhere online. Check the current schedule directly before applying, since government fees are reviewed periodically.

Processing Times

Most of the “how long will this take” guides circulating online quote a tidy range of a few weeks. DAFF itself does not publish that figure. The department’s own framework does specify a statutory outer limit: under the Biosecurity Act 2015, a decision on an import permit application is required within 123 business days of receipt. That is a legal ceiling, not a typical experience, and it exists precisely because assessment time is not fixed. Most guides skip this fact, and it is the one that matters. A file where every document matches on the first read moves through review in a fraction of that ceiling, while a file that triggers even one query gets pushed toward it. A mismatched microchip digit or a declaration missing the right endorsement is enough to trigger that query. The single biggest lever an applicant controls is not the country of origin. It is whether the file needs a second look.

Permit Validity

Validity depends on the same country-group structure that determines evidence requirements. A permit issued against Group 2 evidence is valid for 12 months. A permit issued against Group 3 evidence is valid until the underlying RNATT result expires: 12 months from the date blood was drawn, per DAFF’s RNATT guidance. That means the permit’s real-world shelf life is tied to a testing clock the applicant is separately managing, not to a fixed calendar date DAFF sets independently.

When to Apply

Work backward from the travel date, not forward from today. For a Group 3 move, the RNATT blood draw and its 180-day wait (or, staging through a Group 2 country such as Singapore, the identity check and its 180-day wait) typically set the true floor for how early an owner has to start planning. The import permit application slots in after that clock is already running. Time it so the permit is issued with enough runway before the intended travel window and does not lapse before departure. Applying too early, before the RNATT and other evidence exist to attach, wastes the application fee on a file DAFF cannot yet assess; applying too late risks travel dates arriving before a permit under review has cleared. Families managing the Australia-to-Thailand leg of a move should read this timing alongside our breakdown of what the full move actually costs, since permit timing and cost planning are the same conversation in practice.

What the Permit Does Not Guarantee

An import permit is approval to bring a specific, correctly identified animal into Australia under stated conditions. It is not a quarantine booking, and it is not a guarantee that nothing else can go wrong between issue and arrival. It does not override the need for the animal presented at the border to match the permit exactly: same microchip, same identity evidence, same condition compliance. And it does not freeze DAFF’s requirements in place for the life of the permit. DAFF reviews and can change biosecurity conditions, so reconfirm a permit issued many months before travel against current BICON conditions as the departure date approaches. Do not assume it stays identical to the day it was granted.

Common Rejection or Delay Causes

The specific failure points repeat often enough to be predictable rather than random:

• Microchip mismatch. The same number has to appear, identically, on the vaccination record, the RNATT declaration and the BICON application. A transposed digit is enough to trigger a formal query.
• Unendorsed or wrongly endorsed test declarations. A RNATT report without the accompanying declaration from an official government veterinarian of the competent authority does not satisfy the evidence requirement, regardless of the lab result itself.
• Breed listed without supporting proof. DAFF requires veterinary history or a microchip registration certificate to support a breed entry, particularly for any breed subject to additional scrutiny; an unsupported field is a common trigger for a query.
• Incomplete payment. DAFF will not open a file for assessment until both the application charge and the initial assessment fee have cleared; a partial payment does not put the file in the queue.
• Evidence pitched at the wrong country group. Attaching Group 2-level evidence to what is actually a Group 3 application (or the reverse) forces a resubmission rather than a quick fix.
• Communicating outside the correct channel. DAFF’s own published guidance on interacting with the department sets out the expected process for queries and follow-ups; routing questions through the right channel the first time avoids the delay of a misdirected enquiry being redirected internally.

Every one of these is a documentation problem, not a health problem. None involves whether the animal itself is fit to travel. Each tests whether the paperwork proves it cleanly enough for an assessor to approve on the first pass.

Permit Variation

A finalised permit is not necessarily the end of the process. If new information needs to be reflected after issue, only the original applicant can log into their BICON account and submit a permit variation request. Fees apply. Some variations are more straightforward than others: DAFF requires veterinary history or a microchip registration certificate before it will amend a breed already recorded on a finalised permit. That makes getting the breed evidence right in the original application considerably cheaper than correcting it afterward. If the person who applied is no longer involved in the move, a fresh application, full evidence pack included, is required rather than a variation.

That rule turns a small administrative choice into a real one: whose BICON account the application goes into. Letting a pet transport agent lodge it is convenient, and it works well while the agent stays on the job. If the arrangement ends mid-process, though, the right to request a variation leaves with the applicant. Before anyone applies, decide which party you are most confident will still be handling the move on arrival day, and lodge under that account. If there is a meaningful chance you will change agents before then, lodge it yourself. If the agent does apply, get a commitment to process any variation written into the engagement, because a fresh application at that stage means paying the charges again and rejoining the assessment queue.

Quarantine Booking After Permit Issue

The permit and the quarantine booking are two separate systems, and the sequencing only runs one way. You can only create a Post Entry Biosecurity System (PEBS) booking for the Mickleham facility once the import permit has actually been granted; creating a reservation without a valid permit is explicitly against DAFF’s own process. A granted permit does not reserve a place either; demand runs high, particularly in peak relocation periods, so book as soon as the permit clears rather than treating the booking as a formality to handle later. Our full walkthrough of what actually happens inside Mickleham quarantine covers the facility itself in detail once a booking is confirmed.

Permit Application Readiness Checklist

Work through this before submitting, not after DAFF’s first query arrives.

Item	What an assessor checks it against	Where it commonly goes wrong
Microchip number	Must read identically on the application, vaccination record and RNATT declaration	A single transposed digit between documents
Country group evidence pack	Must match the current BICON conditions for the actual country of origin	Using an outdated or wrong-group evidence checklist
RNATT report and declaration	Declaration must be endorsed by an official government veterinarian of the competent authority	Attaching the lab report alone, without the endorsed declaration
Breed documentation	Veterinary history or microchip registration certificate supporting the breed listed	Breed entered without any supporting evidence attached
Application charge and assessment fee	Both must be paid in full before DAFF opens the file	Partial payment, or payment submitted separately from the application
Applicant continuity	Same person named through application, variation and quarantine booking	A change of applicant partway through, forcing a fresh application
Timing against travel date	Permit validity and RNATT expiry both need runway past the intended travel date	Applying too early (before evidence exists) or too late (permit still in review at departure)

Owners working through Australia’s wider biosecurity framework for the first time may find useful background in our explainer on how the BICON system works across all imports, not just pets: the same evidence-matching logic that governs a dog’s import permit governs commercial biosecurity clearances too. For the practical side of arranging the move itself, get a pet transport quote from SwiftCargo before you lock in a travel date the permit timeline needs to support.

Frequently Asked Questions

Does every dog or cat entering Australia need an import permit?

Yes, with a narrower process for New Zealand and Norfolk Island. Every cat or dog entering Australia from anywhere else needs an import permit obtained through BICON before travel, regardless of whether the animal previously lived in Australia. A pet that spent years in Melbourne before an owner’s posting overseas is assessed on the same basis as one that has never been to Australia at all.

How much does a BICON pet import permit cost?

DAFF charges a $135 lodgement fee plus a separate initial assessment fee set by category, and pet permits are assessed at Category 4, which carries a $491 assessment fee. That makes the real first-animal total $626, not the lodgement fee alone, and each additional pet added to the same permit adds $299. Both the lodgement fee and the assessment fee have to clear before DAFF opens the file at all, so budget the combined figure, not the headline application charge, and confirm the current schedule on DAFF’s own BICON fees page since government fees are reviewed periodically.

How long does a BICON pet import permit take to process?

DAFF doesn’t promise a fixed number, but it does publish real targets, and they are more useful than the 123-business-day statutory ceiling most guides quote instead. The department’s own stated aim is to decide standard, Category 1 applications within 20 business days, and non-standard Category 2 to 5 applications, which is where every pet permit sits, within 40 business days. The 123-business-day limit under the Biosecurity Act 2015 is the legal outer bound if a file gets paused for queries, not the typical wait. A file with matching microchip numbers, correctly endorsed test declarations and full payment upfront is the difference between the 40-day target and the 123-day ceiling. Treat that gap as the real cost of an incomplete application, not just a risk of one.

Does having an import permit guarantee my pet a quarantine spot at Mickleham?

No. The permit and the quarantine booking are two separate systems. You can only create a Post Entry Biosecurity System booking once the import permit has actually been granted, and a granted permit does not reserve a place. Demand for the Mickleham facility runs high, especially in peak relocation months, so booking promptly after permit issue matters more than most owners expect.

What is the single most common reason a BICON pet import application gets delayed?

A mismatch between what the application states and what the supporting evidence actually shows, most often a microchip number that does not read identically across the vaccination record, the RNATT declaration and the application form itself. Assessors work from the documents in front of them, not from context, so a single inconsistent digit is enough to trigger a formal query and restart the clock on that section of the review.

A small cat and a large dog moving through Singapore on the same 10-day pathway can differ in total cost by more than the price of a small car, and almost none of that gap comes from the government fees, which are identical for both. It comes from eleven other line items that all move independently (crate size, airline freight, staging boarding, vet prep), and nobody selling a single headline number is telling you the whole truth. This is the actual stack, line by line, with two worked examples at the end showing how it adds up in practice. Understanding pet transport to Australia cost this way, as a stack of independent line items rather than one number, is what lets you actually budget instead of guessing.

Why There Is No One Average

Search for “cost to bring a dog to Australia” and you’ll find single numbers presented with more confidence than the underlying reality supports. The honest answer is that total cost is a sum of roughly a dozen line items, several of which scale with the animal’s size, several of which depend on which staging country and airline route is used, and one of which (whether the pet needs six months of staging-country residency at all) can add thousands of dollars or add nothing, depending entirely on where the pet started its life. A fixed number that doesn’t ask these questions first is a marketing number, not a planning one.

Australian Government Fees

This is the one part of the stack with genuinely fixed, published pricing. DAFF charges a daily husbandry fee of 56 AUD per animal per day at the Mickleham post-entry quarantine facility, plus a reservation charge of 282 AUD and an importation charge of 1,132 AUD per animal, 84 AUD each for inspection and document assessment, and an airline terminal fee of at least 170 AUD. The import permit, 626 AUD for the first animal, is charged on top, and DAFF’s own fees and charges schedule is the only source worth treating as current, since these figures are reviewed annually and change without much notice. Taken together, DAFF’s FAQ page estimates the total government-fee cost at 3,114 AUD for the minimum 10-day quarantine pathway, or 4,234 AUD for the minimum 30-day pathway, a difference of 1,120 AUD. Which figure applies depends on the staging country: from Singapore, a Group 2 country, it is the 10-day figure; from a Group 3 country it is 10 days only if identity verification happened before the RNATT blood draw, as our companion article on identity verification and RNATT covers in full.

Veterinary Preparation

Before any government fee is paid, there’s a run of veterinary costs with no fixed DAFF schedule at all, because they’re paid to private clinics in the staging country: the initial health check, any vaccinations that aren’t already current, the identity verification appointment itself, and a pre-export health certificate. None of this is optional, and none of it is cheap by local standards in most Group 2 staging countries. Budgeting several hundred dollars across these appointments, more if a vaccination series needs restarting, is realistic rather than pessimistic. This line item also tends to be the most schedule-sensitive one in the whole stack: a vaccination that lapses partway through a long staging period, or a booster that falls due right before a rabies blood draw (Singapore’s own serology, or the RNATT on a Group 3 path), can turn one planned appointment into two or three unplanned ones, each with its own consultation fee attached.

RNATT and Laboratory

This line exists only for a pet staging in a Group 3 country; Singapore is Group 2 and DAFF requires no RNATT from it, though Singapore’s own rabies serology for a pet arriving from Thailand, drawn in Thailand before the first flight, is a comparable laboratory cost with no published fee. Where an RNATT applies, the blood draw itself is a routine vet-visit cost, but the laboratory processing is a separate line item, billed by the approved laboratory rather than the vet clinic. For pets tested domestically ahead of a return trip, the Australian Centre for Disease Preparedness in Geelong is the recognised domestic option; for Thailand-origin pets staging elsewhere, the laboratory has to be one the exporting country’s government approves. Budget for this as its own line, and budget for the possibility of paying it twice: a failed or borderline result under DAFF’s 0.5 IU/mL threshold means revaccination and a second blood draw, at a second cost, with the 180-day clock restarting from the new sample’s laboratory-receipt date.

Government Work Overseas

Separate from the vet bills, most staging countries charge their own government processing fees for the identity verification appointment and any export documentation the competent authority issues. These are typically modest individually (often less than a single vet consultation), but they’re easy to forget when budgeting from an Australia-only mental model, since they’re paid to a foreign government agency rather than anywhere DAFF’s own fee schedule would mention. Singapore’s are published: 50 SGD for the import licence, 75 SGD for transport from Changi to the quarantine centre and 68 SGD for the rabies vaccination given on arrival, and then the cost most budgets miss, at least 30 days at the Animal Quarantine Centre for every pet arriving from Thailand, at 26 to 35 SGD a day (36 to 44 SGD from 1 December 2026), roughly 875 to 1,180 AUD for the stay.

Crate

An IATA-compliant travel crate (hard-sided, ventilated on all four sides for international travel, sized so the animal can stand, turn, and lie down without touching the walls) is a real purchase, not a formality, and reusing an old or borrowed crate that doesn’t meet current specifications is one of the more common ways owners get an animal rejected at check-in after everything else is already booked. Crate cost scales directly with animal size: a cat or small dog’s crate costs meaningfully less than the crate a large-breed dog requires, and that gap carries straight through into the next line item.

Airline Freight

This is usually the single largest line in the entire stack, and the one buyers most consistently underestimate. Airlines price live animal cargo by dimensional weight (the crate’s volume, not the animal’s actual body weight), which means two dogs of noticeably different size can end up billed almost identically if their crates are similarly sized, and a large-breed dog’s necessarily larger crate can push this line well above what a same-weight but more compact animal would cost. Route, season, and specific airline all matter here too; a direct or minimal-transit route generally costs less than one requiring a longer layover with animal handling at an intermediate airport.

Transit

If the route includes a layover, common for Thailand-origin pets staging through Singapore before the final leg to Australia, transit handling and any required overnight boarding at the transit point adds its own cost, typically billed per day the animal is in transit-country care. This is separate from, and smaller than, the six-month staging boarding discussed below; it’s specifically the shorter handling window around the actual flight itself.

Mickleham

Covered under Australian Government Fees above as the daily husbandry component, but worth flagging again here because it’s the line item most directly within an owner’s control. Our day-by-day guide to what happens inside Mickleham walks through the facility itself; from a pure cost standpoint, the minimum from Singapore is 10 days, and on a Group 3 staging path the quarantine-length question, and 1,120 AUD of set charges, comes down to whether identity verification happened before the RNATT blood draw months earlier.

Melbourne Collection

Once released, someone has to physically collect the animal from Mickleham, in Melbourne’s outer north. If you’re not already in Melbourne at release time, this means either a dedicated trip or a paid collection-and-onward-transport service, both of which carry a real cost that’s easy to leave out of an early budget built before the release date is known. Collection fees are one of the pet transport to Australia cost items people forget to budget for, precisely because they only apply after the flight has already landed.

Domestic Onward Transport

For families settling anywhere other than Melbourne itself, there’s a further domestic leg, a road transfer or a second domestic flight, to reach the actual final destination. This scales with distance and whether the animal needs another crate-and-cargo booking for a second flight, which for a Sydney, Brisbane, or Perth-bound family can mean effectively a second, smaller version of the international freight line item.

Cost Differences for Cats and Dogs

Government fees don’t discriminate by species: the permit and quarantine charges are the same structure for a cat or a dog. Everything downstream of that does discriminate, almost entirely through size. A cat’s crate is smaller, lighter, and cheaper, its dimensional weight for airline freight is lower, and its Mickleham husbandry costs are identical per day but it’s a smaller animal to transport at every other stage. As a rough rule, a cat’s total stack tends to land noticeably below a similarly-routed medium dog’s, and well below a large dog’s, for reasons that have nothing to do with any cat-specific fee and everything to do with the crate on the scale at check-in.

Large Dog Cost Drivers

Large and giant breeds don’t just cost more. They can hit real logistical ceilings that smaller animals never encounter. Some aircraft have maximum crate-size or weight restrictions in their cargo hold that rule out certain routes or aircraft types entirely for a big enough dog, narrowing the airline and routing options down to whichever carriers can actually accommodate the crate, which removes some of the price competition a smaller pet’s owner benefits from. Budget not just for a bigger number on the same list, but for the possibility that the cheapest routing option on paper simply isn’t available for your specific dog’s crate size.

Non-Approved-Country Staging

For Thailand-origin pets specifically, there’s a line item that doesn’t appear at all for pets starting in an already-approved country: six months of staging-country boarding, plus the staging-country vet and government fees covered above. See our guide to choosing six-month boarding during an Australian import for how to select a facility. From a pure cost perspective, six months of licensed boarding in a staging country like Singapore is very often the single largest number in the entire stack, larger than airline freight, larger than the Mickleham fees, and it’s the one first-time owners are most likely to discover partway through rather than budget for from the start. Our guide to the 180-day approved-country rule explains why this residency period can’t be shortened or skipped.

The Complete Cost Stack

Pulling every line item above into one table (figures are researched ranges, not fixed prices; every real case needs its own quote):

Line item	Typical range (AUD)	What drives the variation
Import permit + quarantine levy + husbandry fees	~3,100–4,250	10-day (Singapore path) vs 30-day (Group 3 path without a prior identity check)
Veterinary preparation (staging country)	200–600	Number of appointments, whether vaccinations restart
RNATT and laboratory (Group 3 staging only; Singapore’s own serology otherwise, fee unpublished)	150–500	Single vs repeated test
Government processing (staging country)	50–250 (Singapore: ~215 in AVS fees)	Country-specific fee schedule
Mandatory arrival quarantine (Singapore, 30 days at AQC)	875–1,180	Fan or air-conditioned room; rates rise Dec 2026
IATA-compliant crate	150–600	Animal size
Airline freight	1,000–5,000+	Dimensional weight, route, season
Transit handling	100–400	Layover length and location
Melbourne collection	150–500	Distance traveled to collect, or paid service
Domestic onward transport	0–1,500	Whether final destination is outside Melbourne
Six-month staging boarding (Thailand-origin only)	3,000–7,000+	Facility type, kennel vs home boarding

Two Illustrative Quote Examples

The two scenarios below are illustrative constructions built from the ranges above, not real quotes for a specific shipment. They exist to show how the stack adds up differently for two different animals, not to promise a price.

Same country of origin, same staging country, same general process. The difference between roughly 9,900 AUD and roughly 15,800 AUD is almost entirely size: a bigger crate, higher dimensional weight, a larger boarding run and the Sydney leg. Neither animal pays for an RNATT and both get the 10-day Mickleham figure, because Singapore is a Group 2 staging country.

Why a Single Online Estimate Is Usually Wrong

Most online pet-shipping calculators ask for an origin, a destination, and a weight, then return one number. That number is not dishonest, exactly. It’s just answering a much narrower question than the one being asked. It almost never asks whether the government fee should be calculated at the 10-day or 30-day rate, which depends on the staging country’s group and, in a Group 3 country, on whether identity verification preceded the RNATT. It rarely asks whether the animal is coming from an approved country directly or needs six months of staging first, which is the single biggest swing factor in the entire stack. A quote generated before those two questions are answered is a guess wearing the shape of a quote. The two illustrative examples above exist specifically to show how much the total moves once those questions get real answers, rather than defaulting to whichever outcome a calculator assumed by default.

Cut through any quote with one plain question: does this number know whether my pet needs staging, and does it know which quarantine rate applies? If a quote can’t answer either one, it isn’t wrong exactly. It just hasn’t been asked the two questions that actually decide the price. Ask them directly before you compare a single figure against anything else.

Build Your Own Worksheet

Copy the ten-row table structure from the complete cost stack above into a spreadsheet, with three columns: line item, your researched estimate, and actual cost once confirmed. Fill in the government fees first, since those are the only genuinely fixed numbers; get real quotes for airline freight and staging boarding next, since those are the two lines most likely to move your total by a meaningful margin; and leave the smaller lines (crate, transit handling, collection) for last, since they’re the easiest to estimate accurately from the ranges above. Revisit the sheet after your pet’s identity verification is scheduled, since in Singapore that appointment starts the 180-day clock, and in a Group 3 country its timing against the RNATT decides which government-fee row applies.

SwiftCargo’s pet transport team can turn this worksheet into a real, itemized quote once your pet’s origin, size, and staging plan are confirmed. Get in touch early, since several of these line items are cheaper to get right the first time than to fix after a vet appointment has already happened in the wrong order.

Pet Transport to Australia Cost: Quick Recap

Government fees, veterinary preparation, RNATT and laboratory work, crate build, airline freight, quarantine handling at Mickleham, and collection or onward domestic transport are the line items that make up the real total. Building your own pet transport to Australia cost worksheet from this list, rather than trusting a single online estimate, is what keeps a moving budget from blowing out mid-process.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the minimum realistic cost to bring a dog to Australia?

For a small dog going through the 10-day minimum quarantine pathway, with no staging boarding required, the government fees alone run to roughly 3,100 AUD (DAFF’s own published estimate is 3,114 AUD), before vet preparation, crate, airline freight, and collection are added. A realistic all-in figure for the simplest possible case tends to start around 4,500 to 5,500 AUD.

Why does quarantine length change the total cost so much?

Because the daily husbandry fee at Mickleham is charged per day, per animal, on top of a fixed import levy. Twenty extra days at 56 AUD per day adds 1,120 AUD, and it applies only to a pet staged in a Group 3 country without a prior identity check (from Singapore the minimum is 10 days), but the bigger cost is usually indirect: extra weeks away from a pet, delayed collection travel, and in some cases changed onward accommodation or work-start plans.

Is it cheaper to import a cat than a dog?

Usually, and the gap is almost entirely about size and weight rather than any difference in government fees, which are charged per animal regardless of species. A cat’s smaller IATA-compliant crate and lower dimensional weight typically means meaningfully lower airline freight charges than a medium or large dog on the same route.

Does staging in Singapore for six months add a lot to the total cost?

Yes, and it is usually the single largest line item most first-time owners forget to budget for. Six months of licensed boarding, plus Singapore’s mandatory 30-day quarantine on arrival and the identity verification appointment (no RNATT is needed from Singapore), can add several thousand dollars beyond the direct-import cost stack, which is why the staging decision is worth costing out early rather than discovering it mid-process.

Are the two example quotes in this article real prices I can expect to pay?

No. They are illustrative examples built from the same line items and researched ranges described earlier in this article, constructed to show how the stack adds up for two different animals, not a quote for your specific pet, route, or timing. Every real case needs its own quote, since airline rates, crate sizing, and staging costs all vary.

What is the biggest single cost driver for a large dog specifically?

Airline freight, by a wide margin, because most carriers charge live animal cargo by dimensional weight: the crate’s size, not just the animal’s actual weight. A large-breed dog needs a proportionally larger IATA-compliant crate, and that crate’s volume can push the freight charge up sharply compared to a small or medium dog on an identical route.