How to Get a MAQIS Import Permit for Your Pet

Families relocating to Kuala Lumpur find the permit first, because it is the thing with a name and a form. Planning starts there, and the microchip, the vaccination dates and the breed question get treated as details to sort out later.

That order is backwards, and it is expensive. The permit application does not create eligibility. It records it. If the animal was not eligible on the day you applied, the form cannot be completed truthfully, and the file stops.

This guide walks the sequence in the order MAQIS needs it, based on how we run pet import into Malaysia files at My Pet Mover. The video below sets out the shape of an international pet move.

The Department of Veterinary Services sets the health conditions your pet must meet. MAQIS issues the permit and clears the animal at the port of entry. Two agencies, two jobs, and owners routinely write to the wrong one.

The official DVS procedure for importing dogs and cats is explicit on the order: check the breed, confirm the vaccinations and age, obtain the veterinary health certificate from the exporting country’s authority, and only then obtain the import permit from MAQIS before the animal departs.

Three things follow from that, and they catch people out:

• The permit must exist before departure. Not before landing. An animal that boards without one is a problem in the air, not a problem to fix on arrival.
• It names one animal. Two cats are two permits. The microchip number is what ties the document to the animal in the crate.
• It has a short shelf life. Permits are issued against a travel window rather than an open-ended approval, so timing the application matters as much as making it. We cover that in detail in our guide to how long a MAQIS import permit lasts.

The Department of Veterinary Services describes both routes plainly. An importer may open their own Dagang Net account, or may employ a pet relocation agent appointed by MAQIS to lodge the application and handle clearance at the entry point.

In practice the second route is what happens, and not because agents insist on it. The account must be registered and approved before it can submit anything, payment runs through the system rather than over a counter, and someone has to present the animal and the file at the quarantine station on arrival.

An owner sitting in Dubai or Melbourne cannot meet their own consignment at the KLIA quarantine counter — and that single fact settles the question for most families.

The full argument for why the do-it-yourself route rarely survives contact with a real move is set out in our piece on why you cannot DIY a MAQIS permit. The short version: the form is not the barrier, the account and the arrival are.

Here is the sequence we work to on every inbound file. Steps one and two can end the move rather than delay it.

1. Check the breed first. Malaysia bans some dog breeds outright and restricts others. A restricted breed needs written approval from the MAQIS Director General before any permit application is made.
2. Confirm the age. Dogs and cats must be older than three months at the time of import. A puppy bought to travel with the family often is not.
3. Microchip to ISO standard. The animal must carry an ISO 11784 and 11785 compliant microchip, and it should be implanted before the rabies vaccination so the two records tie together.
4. Vaccinate against rabies and core diseases. The rabies vaccine must still be valid on the day the pet lands in Malaysia, not on the day you applied.
5. Obtain the veterinary health certificate. Issued by the government veterinary authority of the exporting country, with export taking place inside the short window that certificate allows.
6. Lodge the permit application and book quarantine. Filed through ePermit before departure, alongside the quarantine booking where the country of export requires one.

Notice what is not on that list: booking the flight. Airlines release live-animal space on their own schedule, so we start that conversation in parallel from step one.

The table below is the readiness check we run before lodging anything. Owners underestimate the lead-time column, because four of the five items sit on a third party’s calendar rather than yours.

The certificate trips even experienced movers. It is issued close to departure by design, so it cannot be obtained early to get ahead, and everything else must finish before that window opens. Our document checklist for pets entering Malaysia lists each item in order.

The published regulations name restricted breeds including the Bull Mastiff, Bull Terrier, Doberman, German Shepherd and its Belgian and East European relatives, the Perro de Presa Canario and the Rottweiler. The banned list includes the Akita, American Bulldog, Dogo Argentino, Fila Brasileiro, Japanese Tosa, Neapolitan Mastiff and the Pit Bull Terrier group.

Approval for a restricted breed is conditional. The DVS importation regulations set out what the Director General expects, and several conditions concern the home rather than the dog:

• A pedigree certificate from an approved organisation in the country of export, with the microchip code recorded on it.
• A named responsible importer stated in the application, who will care for and handle the dog.
• An inspection of the premises to verify the kennel, compound size, safety and control arrangements.
• A written declaration that the dog is a personal pet and not for sale, will be kept secured within the compound, and leashed and muzzled in public.

A crossbreed with visible German Shepherd in it is a conversation, not a technicality, and far better had in month one. We cover the full picture in our guide to dog breeds banned or restricted in Malaysia.

The chart below shows where inbound files lose time, weighted by how often each cause appears in the delayed cases we handle. The problem is nearly always upstream of MAQIS.

Not one of these is a permit problem. They surface when the application forces someone to write the dates down and compare them.

The timeline below is the standard shape we plan to for an inbound file with no exceptional conditions. Longer-lead routes push the whole thing earlier.

Read the table from the bottom up and the logic is obvious. The final week is fixed by the certificate, so everything above it must finish first.

The comparison below sets out who decides what. Read down the right-hand column: a yes from one party does not carry over to any of the others.

Owners email DVS about permits and MAQIS about vaccination schedules, and both land in the wrong inbox. Route each question to the authority that owns the decision.

The most common misunderstanding is about quarantine. Whether your pet is held on arrival depends on the country it travels from, not on the permit. Animals arriving from countries Malaysia has not scheduled as exempt are quarantined on landing, and the permit does nothing to change that.

We explain that split in scheduled versus non-scheduled countries, and what the stay involves in our guide to pet quarantine at KLIA. Land routes have their own rules, as our guide to driving a dog to Singapore via the Causeway shows.

The other misunderstanding is cost. The permit fee is a small government charge, nowhere near the cost of the move. Flights, crates, quarantine and handling dominate the bill, which we set out in our breakdown of MAQIS fees and import permit costs.

Every difficult import file we inherit has the same shape. The owner researched the permit thoroughly and the eligibility questions barely at all. By the time the application forces the dates onto one page, the vaccination record is short or the breed needs an approval nobody started.

Do it the other way round and the process is unremarkable. That is the whole trick, and it costs only starting earlier.

1. Who issues the import permit for a pet entering Malaysia?

The Malaysian Quarantine and Inspection Services Department, known as MAQIS, issues the import permit. The Department of Veterinary Services sets the health conditions the animal must meet, but does not issue the permit. Applications are lodged through the national ePermit system before the animal departs.

2. Can I apply for a MAQIS permit myself?

The application runs through a registered ePermit subscriber account rather than a public web form, and someone must present the animal and its file at the quarantine station on arrival. Most private owners therefore use a pet relocation agent appointed by MAQIS.

3. When should the permit application be submitted?

In the final few weeks before departure, and always before the animal travels. Applying too early is a real risk, because the permit is issued against a travel window rather than as an open-ended approval. Microchip, vaccinations and breed approval must be finished before that point.

4. Does a permit mean my pet skips quarantine?

No. Quarantine on arrival depends on which country the animal travels from, not on the permit. Pets arriving from countries Malaysia has not scheduled as exempt are quarantined on landing under the published import regulations, and a valid permit does not change that.

5. What happens if my dog is a restricted breed?

Restricted breeds need written approval from the MAQIS Director General before any permit application is made. That approval is conditional and includes an inspection of the premises in Malaysia. Banned breeds cannot be imported at all, and no permit is issued for them.