The order of steps that must not be shuffled
- Microchip. An ISO-standard microchip — 10 or 15 digits, and the number must not start with 999. The chip comes first: it has to be in the animal before the rabies vaccination, otherwise the vaccination will not count.
- Identity verification. An official government vet checks the chip number. Done before the blood draw — this is exactly what earns the short 10-day quarantine instead of 30.
- Rabies vaccination. With an approved vaccine; the animal must be at least 84 days old. The vaccination must still be valid both on the day of the blood draw and on the day of departure.
- A 3–4 week pause. Blood must not be drawn earlier: antibodies have not risen yet, and the result would come back low.
- Blood draw and dispatch to the laboratory. The laboratory must be on Australia's approved list. The report — in English, on the laboratory's letterhead.
- RNAT declaration. Issued by an official government veterinarian, not the treating one. The chip number, result and draw date must match the laboratory report character for character.
Three numbers to remember
0.5 IU/ml — the minimum result. Anything lower means the test failed; revaccination and a repeat draw are needed, and the 180-day countdown starts over.
180 days — the time that must pass from the sample reaching the laboratory until the departure date. Not from the vaccination and not from the blood draw. This is the single most common calculation mistake.
365 days — the test's validity, counted from the blood draw date. Departure has to fall inside this window: no earlier than day 180 and no later than day 365.
So the departure corridor is roughly half a year. That sounds roomy, but the import permit takes 20–40 business days to process — up to 123 business days in hard cases — and it too is only valid until the RNAT expires. You need the buffer.
What most often ruins the result
Vaccination done before microchipping — no one will accept the result. Blood drawn less than three weeks after vaccination — the titre didn't climb high enough. A typo in the chip number on the lab report — the document is void. Vaccination expired between the blood draw and departure — the animal won't fly. A correction covered with correction fluid — such a document is rejected: an error may only be struck through, signed and stamped.
None of these mistakes can be repaired after the fact. Each one means a new cycle and at least another six months of waiting — which is why we double-check dates and numbers at every step, before they go into the paperwork.
What if the animal is already vaccinated?
If the vaccination is current and was given after microchipping, no revaccination is needed — you can simply wait out the pause and draw blood. But if the chip was implanted after the vaccination, everything starts from scratch. This is worth checking first of all, before making any plans around a moving date.