More and more families split the year between two countries: a few months in Spain, the rest in France, Germany, the Netherlands or the UK. With a home in two places the logistics get sorted quickly. With a dog or a cat making the journey twice a year, there are loose ends almost nobody checks until something goes wrong.
This article covers the four points most often overlooked: where the animal is registered, what your policy actually covers outside its home country, how to keep a single clinical history, and what paperwork each trip needs.
The issue is not travelling, it is where your pet lives
The first question is not about insurance but about residence. If you spend long spells in Spain, it is worth being clear whether your animal is simply visiting or, in practice, living here for a substantial part of the year.
Identification is what usually ends up half done. A microchip implanted in another country does not appear automatically on the Spanish register. Registration happens with your autonomous community’s register, and many town halls also require enrolment on the municipal pet census. Rules, deadlines and fees vary from one region to another, so the specific enquiry is with your town hall.
It is worth settling even if your stay is seasonal. If the animal goes missing in Spain, the chip only helps if someone can find your details on a register reachable from here.
Territorial scope: the clause that decides everything
This is the critical point. A policy taken out in your home country may cover stays abroad, but almost always with two limits: a defined territorial scope and a maximum continuous stay outside the country. If you spend five months in Spain, it is entirely possible to exceed that limit without realising.
The check is simple and best done in writing. Ask your insurer which countries fall within the scope, how many consecutive days you can be away while cover continues, and how an invoice issued in another country is handled: what documents they require, within what deadline, and what exchange rate applies if the invoice is not in euros.
If the answer does not fit how you actually live, the sensible alternative is to insure the animal where it spends most of the year. A Spanish policy such as Petplan’s works by reimbursement: you go to the vet of your choice, pay, and then send in the invoice, the report and the vaccination card to claim back under your policy’s terms.
Two vets, one clinical history
Splitting the year between two countries usually means two practices, and that is where continuity breaks. The vet who sees the animal in October does not know what happened in June unless somebody tells them.
The fix is crude and it works: ask for the clinical report at every visit and keep everything — reports, blood results, invoices and the vaccination card — in a single folder, digital and physical. When you change country, hand a complete copy to the other professional. For animals with chronic conditions, that folder is worth more than any explanation from memory.
It also has a direct effect on insurance. Pre-existing conditions travel with the animal: something diagnosed in one country remains diagnosed in the other. And on a first claim, or depending on the condition, the full clinical history may be requested — which is precisely what you will have been keeping.
The travel paperwork, every time
Within the European Union three things are needed: a microchip, a valid rabies vaccination and an EU pet passport. The order matters — chip first, vaccine second — and a first vaccination requires a 21-day wait before travelling. The vaccine only counts if the animal was at least 12 weeks old.
Since 22 April 2026 only a microchip is accepted as identification, and a new passport model is in force under Commission Implementing Regulation (EU) 2026/705; passports issued before 1 January 2028 remain valid through the transitional period. Dogs entering Finland, Ireland, Malta, Northern Ireland or Norway also need treatment against Echinococcus multilocularis within the 120 hours before entry.
The UK sits outside the EU passport system and applies its own requirements, which have changed several times. If that is one of your two countries, confirm the current version with your vet before booking each trip, not once and for all.
What changes in the policy
Insuring in Spain carries a timing implication worth knowing. Waiting periods run from the start date: with Petplan, 15 days for accidents and 30 days for illness, the latter only in the first policy year. If you are going to insure here, do it at the start of the season rather than in the week a symptom appears.
Check the time limit per condition too. Under Petplan’s policy terms, each injury or illness is covered for 12 months from the date it occurred or first showed clinical signs — particularly relevant when follow-up is split between two countries and stretches out.
And do not forget third-party liability, which in many countries sits inside home insurance and disappears when that policy ends. In Spain it is required for dogs classified as potentially dangerous, and several regions and town halls require it more widely. With Petplan it is bought separately from the health policy: 25 euros a year for 300,000 euros of cover, 55 euros for 500,000, with no age limit.
A routine for each season
Before coming: check the rabies vaccination and the passport are current, ask the vet in the other country for an updated clinical report, and review the parasite schedule, because your home country’s does not transfer to Spain as it stands.
On arrival: confirm the microchip is registered here and in your name, find an emergency clinic near the house and save the number. With that settled, the hard part of having a pet in two countries stops being hard.
