The microchip: the one identifier everything else hangs on

Last verified: 2026-08-25

The answer

A microchip is the only approved method of identification. It must be ISO compliant — generally a 10-digit or 15-digit number. Numbers beginning 999 are not accepted, because they are not unique.

Have the chip verified before you start the import process, and at least 180 days before export.

Why this is the highest-stakes detail in the whole process

Everything else you do — the titre test, the declarations, the permit, the health certificate — is attached to that number. It is how Australia matches your animal to its preparations.

Which is why the failure mode is absolute rather than inconvenient:

If a microchip cannot be read, or is recorded incorrectly in your documents, your dog cannot be imported to Australia.

And there is no paperwork route out of it: the department does not accept changes to laboratory reports or other documents to add or amend a microchip number. A typo in a laboratory report is not a correction you request. It is a test you repeat.

What the veterinarian must do, every time

A government approved veterinarian must scan the microchip:

• at each visit; and
• before any pre-export blood sampling,

and check that the number is recorded on all documentation. If you take one thing to each appointment, make it the habit of watching the scan happen and checking the number written down against the number on the screen. Nobody else will catch a transposed digit before it becomes permanent.

If your dog has two microchips

It happens more often than people expect — a rescue animal chipped twice, or a chip added after an international move.

Two compliant microchips: both numbers must appear on the import permit application, all laboratory reports, the veterinary health certificate, the RNATT declaration, and the identity check. Both must be scanned and recorded at every veterinary visit, and both must match every import document.

One compliant and one non-compliant: only the compliant microchip is used.

If the microchip stops working

Chips fail, and they migrate. The veterinarian should try multiple scanners, and an X-ray can locate a chip that has moved from the implant site.

The requirement at the other end is unchanged: your dog must arrive in Australia with a microchip that can be scanned and that links to the import permit, the health certificate and the laboratory reports. A chip that worked in March and cannot be read in Melbourne is a problem discovered at the worst possible moment — so ask for it to be scanned at every visit, including the last one before departure.

What this page does not tell you

• Where to get a microchip implanted, or what it costs.
• Whether your existing chip is ISO compliant — your veterinarian can confirm this by scanning it.
• Requirements for cats, which are covered by the department’s separate cat guide and are not yet recorded on this site.
• What to do if the chip was implanted after other preparations began — a sequencing question covered on why identity must come first.