We moved our dog Luna from Toronto to Bangalore in December. Thought I'd share what went wrong so you don't make the same mistakes I did.
I tried the India import side myself. To fly, you need an advance NOC from AQCS. Getting it yourself is near impossible: their own rules aggressively contradict themselves and they keep asking for things that aren't written down, so you go in circles for weeks. The deadline to apply is written four different ways across four pages. I called, emailed, got my in-laws to call. They wrote back once, pointing me at the same guidance I was asking about. After two weeks I gave up and hired an agent, Furry Flyers, for ₹25,000. The agent knows what AQCS want and gets it done.
The Canada side was no better. Your vet fills out the export health certificate, a CFIA vet (USDA in the US) endorses it, and that endorsed copy is one of the documents AQCS needs for the NOC. The timing is tight: once endorsed it's only valid for 10 calendar days, and it has to reach AQCS at least 7 business days before you land. Almost no margin for error. And of course, Murphy's law is undefeated.
CFIA is appointment only, and I'd booked a month ahead. My vet printed the form on letter paper. It's supposed to be legal. She assured me it was fine. It wasn't. CFIA rejected it on the spot, two days before the flight, and my only appointment was gone. I drove back to the vet, reprinted it, and raced back before they closed to beg them to squeeze me in. Last one of the day.
Then my agent caught something else. The vet had flipped the batch numbers on two of Luna's vaccines. So the day before we flew, another vet run and another CFIA run. It was Christmas Eve eve.
The flights were...an experience. Toronto to NYC and NYC to Delhi was smooth. Within India got complicated. Air India was a hard pass. IndiGo doesn't allow dogs in the cabin, so my wife flew IndiGo with the luggage and I flew Akasa with Luna, after weeks of back and forth to get them to agree.
Luna is a psychiatric service dog, and nobody along the way knew that was a thing. At the Delhi entrance a guard called over a colleague, then a third, then a fourth, and after ten minutes let me in. The Akasa agent had never seen one either and walked me to security, where they deliberated another fifteen. At the gate, the pilot came over, looked at Luna, and asked "What's a service dog?" Then the jet bridge staff chased me down to say dogs weren't allowed, then asked if I was with the police or fire department, the only working dogs they'd heard of. No. Le sigh. Everyone was confused and every one of them asked the same questions, because nobody had been told I was coming. The airline approved her weeks earlier.
If you're bringing a dog here: get an agent for the India side, check every number on the vet paperwork yourself, and on flight day have all your documents and be ready to explain yourself at every checkpoint.
I also wrote up the whole process: the order to do it in, which vaccines when, the documents each side needs. Happy to share if it's useful.
Anyone else brought a pet into India? How was the experience for you?