Most Canadian pet owners use a transport agent to coordinate the Air Canada cargo booking as part of their service. Whether you need an agent for everything else depends on how comfortable you are managing a complex multi-month process yourself.
The Air Canada booking
Most Canadian pet owners moving to Australia work with a transport agent to coordinate the Air Canada cargo booking. Contact Air Canada cargo or your transport agent directly to confirm current booking requirements for your specific situation. Requirements may vary based on your pet's age and the specific route.
Everything else
Beyond the flight booking, the Canadian process is more self-directable than the UK process. The medical and documentation steps break down into work you do with your regular vet, and two visits to your local CFIA Animal Health Office. None of these require an agent to coordinate.
Here's how the process splits:
Steps you can handle yourself
- Microchip and rabies vaccination - your regular vet
- CFIA identity verification appointment - you book and attend with your pet
- RNATT blood draw - your regular vet
- RNATT declaration appointment - you book and attend at your CFIA office
- DAFF import permit application via BICON - online, self-directed
- Quarantine booking via PEBS - online, self-directed
- Pre-departure parasite treatments and health exam - your regular vet
- CFIA health certificate endorsement appointment - you book and attend
Steps most people use an agent for
- Air Canada cargo booking and flight coordination
So why do most people use a full-service agent anyway?
Managing a 7-month process across multiple government systems, two CFIA office appointments, a blood test, an overseas laboratory, and a cargo flight involves a lot of moving parts. The process is sequential and unforgiving - one step out of order can mean restarting the 180-day wait or dropping from 10-day to 30-day quarantine.
A good full-service agent earns their fee by:
- Keeping the sequence correct - particularly making sure the CFIA identity check happens before the blood draw
- Tracking timing windows across all the pre-departure treatment steps
- Coordinating the health certificate endorsement timing with the CFIA and the flight date
- Handling the cargo booking and any flight disruptions or rebookings
- Knowing from experience what DAFF accepts and what gets rejected
If you're confident with paperwork, comfortable tracking a multi-step process over seven months, and have time to manage it yourself, you can self-direct the process. Many Canadian pet owners do exactly this. Bringbabka's step-by-step plan is built to guide you through the whole process whether you use an agent or not.
If you'd rather not carry that cognitive load across seven months - particularly while also moving countries - a full-service agent is worth the cost.
If you have a cat, the external parasite products approved by DAFF are not currently available in Canada. A good agent should know this and should have handled the DAFF import permit variation process for cat clients before. If an agent seems unfamiliar with this issue, that's a red flag.
What to ask before you engage an agent
- How many Canada-to-Australia moves have you completed in the last 12 months?
- Are you an IPATA member?
- Do you handle coordination with the CFIA for the identity verification and health certificate endorsement?
- Have you handled the external parasite permit variation for Canadian cat owners? (Cat owners only.)
- What's included in your fee and what do I handle myself?
Finding an IPATA agent
The IPATA member directory at ipata.org lets you search by destination country. Filter for Australia and look for agents who specifically mention Canada-to-Australia experience. Real-world recommendations from people who've done the route are the most reliable guide - the Expats and their pets moving to and from Australia Facebook group is where those conversations happen.