Flying Snuggles, a Cat, from Turkey to Ho Chi Minh City (IST – SGN)

Snuggles spent months in western Turkey with a friend of his owner while she settled into a new home in Ho Chi Minh City. When the two flew in together on Monday 12 October 2026, the slowest part of the day was not the flight or the cat’s paperwork — it was the passport queue at Tan Son Nhat.

Two agencies, two countries, one cat

The work was split by country. In Turkey, a local pet agency arranged his pet passport and vaccinations, the health and export documents, an IATA-compliant travel crate and the handover at Istanbul Airport. Daisy Pet handled the Vietnamese side: the quarantine declaration, the arrival plan and the import procedure in Ho Chi Minh City. “My cat is a member of my family and wherever I go in the world, I need him with me,” his owner wrote the day before the flight.

Snuggles travelled as checked baggage on his owner’s flight, so in Vietnam he counted as a pet arriving with its owner. That choice kept the arrival simple. Pablo, an English Setter shipped as cargo on the same Turkey–Vietnam corridor in September, needed his owner at the cargo terminal in Hanoi; Snuggles’ owner collected him at the baggage belt.

What the Turkish health certificate covered

The key export document was a two-page Veterinary Health Certificate from Turkey’s Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry, in the version for the non-commercial movement of a pet accompanying its owner. It was signed by an official veterinarian at the district agriculture directorate where Snuggles lived — not in Istanbul — on Friday 9 October, for a flight leaving at 01:50 on Monday 12 October: less than three days before departure.

• Owner on both ends: her address in Turkey as consignor, her Ho Chi Minh City apartment as consignee.
• Clinical statement: examined, fit to travel and showing no signs of infectious disease.
• Parasite treatment: a statement that he had been treated against internal and external parasites with approved products.
• Owner’s declaration: page two confirms the trip is not a sale or a change of ownership, and that the cat travels with his owner within five days of her journey, identified by his microchip and pet passport number.

The certificate does not record the rabies vaccination — that sits in his pet passport. Daisy Pet asked the owner to carry the vaccination record, the health certificate and the export documents as originals, because Vietnam’s import inspection looks at all of them. The full document list for cats is in our guide to bringing a cat to Vietnam.

Vietnam’s side: Form 3 and the originals

Once photos of the signed Turkish certificate arrived, Daisy Pet filed the Form 3 declaration (Mẫu 3) with the animal quarantine station at Tan Son Nhat Airport. Form 3 is a declaration asking to be inspected, not an import permit: the certificate that clears a pet comes only after the inspection. How the form works, and which certificate comes at the end, is covered in our Form 3 and Form 15a guide.

The owner was asked to keep every original document with the cat and to message the team on landing — someone would be available around the clock.

Departure from Istanbul at 01:50

Snuggles’ flight left Istanbul at 01:50 on Monday. His owner, used to arriving three hours early, asked how much extra time a cat at check-in would need and where to meet. The Turkish agency’s representative met her at the airport at 22:00 — almost four hours before departure — at whichever check-in counter she was assigned, bringing the crate, the cat’s passport and the export and health certificates, and stayed with her until the procedures were done. Which carriers accept pets as checked baggage, and on what terms, is compared in our guide to airlines that fly pets to Vietnam.

Landing in Ho Chi Minh City: the queue was at passport control

The flight landed shortly after 16:00. Arrival day, in Vietnam time:

1. 16:32 — His owner reports she has landed and is in line at passport control.
2. 16:56 — Still in line, she asks whether Snuggles is collected where the luggage is. He is: a checked-baggage pet comes out in the baggage claim area, not in a separate building.
3. 17:32 — Still in the passport line.
4. 18:03 — Through passport control, she reports that she has collected Snuggles.

About an hour and a half went on the immigration queue. A few minutes later she sent a photo of a wide-eyed cat behind the crate door. “He’s very scared,” she wrote. Other common questions about the arrival side of an import are answered in our pet import to Vietnam FAQ.

By the evening of Wednesday 14 October, the import documents had been approved and issued, and Daisy Pet arranged to deliver them to her building.

What Snuggles’ case shows for bringing a cat from Turkey to Vietnam

• Send the certificate the day it is signed. The photos arrived just after 9:00 Turkish time, so the Vietnamese side could prepare its paperwork the same day.
• Agree the check-in meeting early. With a 01:50 departure, the owner was still asking for the meeting time and place on the afternoon before the flight. Settle it when the flight is booked.
• Allow time for the passport queue. At Tan Son Nhat on this Monday afternoon it took about an hour and a half.
• Keep every original until the import certificate arrives. The Turkish certificate, the export documents, the vaccination record and the owner’s passport are what Vietnam’s inspection checks.

Snuggles’ trip was two jobs joined at a check-in counter in Istanbul: an export arranged in Turkey and an import completed in Ho Chi Minh City. The full sequence — exporting country, airline, then Vietnam — is set out in our overview of how pet import to Vietnam works.