EHC 3914: The UK Export Certificate for Malaysia

Most owners find the certificate the same way. They search for how to bring a dog from London to Kuala Lumpur, land on a GOV.UK page titled Export cats and dogs to Malaysia: certificate 3914, and assume the form is the task. It is not. It is the receipt at the end of the task. The clauses printed inside it are Malaysian clauses, and a vet in Britain can only tick them once Malaysia has already agreed to let the animal in.

This piece walks it from both ends: what Britain asks of the applicant, what Malaysia asks of the certificate, and the order the two have to happen in. It is written for owners and relocating families on the Malaysia to UK pet transport corridor, from the arrivals files My Pet Mover clears at KLIA. Defra’s own guidance sets out the British starting position.

The full title on GOV.UK is Export cats and dogs to Malaysia: certificate 3914. It has been in place since November 2018, and the page was last updated on 6 May 2026.

Three things are worth fixing in your head first.

• It is species-specific. Cats and dogs only. Other pets travel on different certificates, or not at all.
• It is destination-specific. The form works for Malaysia and nowhere else. A certificate issued for another country is rejected on arrival.
• It is version-controlled. The published specimen is version 3, with guidance notes last revised in November 2023. Applying online is the only way to be sure you are on the current version.

Britain treats it as an export document. Malaysia treats it as the veterinary health certificate its regulations demand from the exporting country’s government authority. Two legal readings of one sheet of paper, which is why it sits at the end of the file. The same logic governs the export health certificates used for UK-bound pets in the opposite direction.

This is the most expensive misreading on the corridor, because both directions get searched with the same words. An owner in Kuala Lumpur reads about the certificate, asks a Malaysian vet for it, and is told nobody here issues that form.

Nobody in Malaysia can. An export health certificate comes from the government veterinary authority of the country the animal is leaving. Britain’s is APHA. Malaysia’s is the Department of Veterinary Services. Neither will certify the other’s territory.

Every destination also keeps its own country list, written to its own risk appetite. Britain classifies Malaysia one way for entry, as covered in our explainer on whether Malaysia is a listed country for UK pet travel. Malaysia classifies Britain a different way for its own. Singapore runs a separate schedule again and applies quarantine to Malaysian pets on arrival. Three authorities, three lists, no shared vocabulary.

Britain is a scheduled country under Malaysia’s import regulations, so the certificate is written against the scheduled-country clause list rather than the stricter non-scheduled one, a distinction explained in our breakdown of scheduled and non-scheduled countries.

Only the last row is a vet’s judgement on the day. The rest are facts about the animal’s past that either exist or do not, which is why the examination is booked last.

Neither the vet nor the owner can do this alone. Both need accounts, and APHA checks the vet’s registration before they can certify anything. That check is where first-time exporters lose a week. Malaysia’s equivalent gatekeeping is covered in our piece on why MAQIS permits need an authorised agent.

1. Register the accounts. The exporter needs a Government Gateway account and a Defra account. GOV.UK puts registration at around five minutes.
2. Get the vet registered and checked. The official vet or inspector registers separately, and APHA verifies that registration before certification is possible.
3. Read the current guidance notes. Last revised in November 2023, they set out the export requirements the vet certifies against.
4. Apply online. Applying through the service means you always draw the latest version, can track the application, and can copy an earlier one for a second pet.
5. Book the examination inside the seven-day window. Examination and certification sit within seven days of export, so the appointment is scheduled against a confirmed flight, not before one.
6. Collect the signed certificate before departure. It travels with the animal and is presented on arrival in Malaysia.

Northern Ireland changed on 6 May 2026. Exporters there no longer download the certificate; they complete the template inside DAERA’s online process. If your vet is working from a saved PDF, raise it.

Three Malaysian conditions can kill a move outright, and all three are knowable on day one.

• The import permit must pre-date departure. DVS is explicit that the permit comes from MAQIS before the animal leaves the country of export. Applying after boarding is not recoverable — see how to get a MAQIS import permit for your pet.
• The breed decides whether a permit is possible at all. Seven types are banned outright and six restricted. Restricted breeds need written approval from the Director General of MAQIS before the permit application, plus a pedigree certificate, a premises inspection and a written owner declaration. Full lists are in our guide to dog breeds banned or restricted in Malaysia.
• The route must be direct by air. The scheduled-country regulation requires animals to be carried by aircraft direct from the listed country to a prescribed landing place or another Malaysian airport.

A chip that cannot be read at the counter counts as no identification at all. British chips are almost always compliant, but the number must match every document, as our microchip rules for pets entering Malaysia explains.

One nuance is worth stating plainly. The scheduled-country regulation carries no compulsory quarantine clause, while the non-scheduled version requires detention of at least seven days. That is the published reading, not a guarantee: MAQIS retains discretion at entry.

The chart shows the shape of a typical file, not a quotation, because crate size and travel month are set by your own dog. Actual figures for the Malaysian side sit on our pet relocation pricing page.

Restricted-breed approval looks trivial on the invoice but is the line that can add weeks, because a premises inspection has to be scheduled. Ground handling scales with how far from the airport you live at both ends, which owners rarely model.

As a countdown, the file splits into a long assembly phase and a short certification phase.

Notice how few rows say “rule”. The rules are short; the queues are long, and nobody schedules them. The same arithmetic drives the reverse route, set out in how long moving a pet to the UK takes.

Grouping the failures by who controls them makes the priority obvious.

The top row deserves attention. A family that moved a dog into Britain and is posting again inside six months has a real problem, and no paperwork solves it, because the clause is about elapsed time. Related traps appear in common pet import mistakes that delay entry.

Families often move in both directions, so the mirror is worth knowing. GOV.UK’s country table places Malaysia and Peninsular Malaysia in the listed column, so the pet travels on a Great Britain pet health certificate, signed, stamped and dated by an official vet, with entry inside 10 days of issue.

Peninsular Malaysia carries one extra document that the rest of the world does not. GOV.UK asks for a certificate from the Malaysian government veterinary health services covering three things: no contact with pigs in the 60 days before departure, no stay on a holding where Nipah disease was found in that period, and a negative Nipah antibody blood test. The sample must come from an approved laboratory and be taken no more than 10 days before you leave. The reasoning is set out in why UK pet exports ask about pig contact.

Malaysia’s outbound certificate is a different form again, prepared by DVS rather than APHA, as our guide to the veterinary health certificate for Malaysia entry explains.

Owners who treat the certificate as the project usually finish late. Owners who treat it as the closing signature on a project that started weeks earlier finish on time.

Work the queues first, keep the seven-day examination window clear, and confirm the current position with APHA and MAQIS before committing to a date. Rules here move: the Northern Ireland route changed in May 2026, and Malaysia’s country list was reissued in December 2025.

1. What is EHC 3914 used for?

It is the export health certificate for cats and dogs leaving Great Britain or Northern Ireland for Malaysia. GOV.UK publishes it as Export cats and dogs to Malaysia: certificate 3914, and an official vet completes and signs it before departure.

2. Can a Malaysian vet issue EHC 3914?

No. It is a British export certificate issued through APHA in England, Scotland and Wales, or DAERA in Northern Ireland. A pet leaving Malaysia for Britain needs a Great Britain pet health certificate instead.

3. How do I apply for it?

In England, Scotland and Wales you apply online through APHA’s export health certificate service, using a Government Gateway account and a Defra account. Your official vet registers separately and has that registration checked by APHA. Northern Ireland applies through DAERA’s DECS system.

4. Does my pet need quarantine when it arrives in Malaysia from Britain?

Britain sits on Malaysia’s scheduled-country list, and that regulation does not carry the compulsory quarantine clause applied to non-scheduled countries. MAQIS still exercises discretion at the point of entry, so confirm your own case before assuming your pet travels straight home.

5. How close to the flight is the certificate signed?

Malaysia’s scheduled-country regulation requires the health examination and certification within seven days of export, with no clinical signs on the day of shipment. That makes it the last document completed before departure.