If a horse is imported to the UK permanently (90 days or more) and holds a passport issued outside the UK (including Ireland), the horse’s passport information will need to be uploaded to the UK central equine database (CED) by a UK based passport issuing organisation (PIO). This process is known as ‘overstamping’ and is a legal requirement in the UK.
The BHS offers overstamping services to ID only (breeding and production) passports, which do not contain details of the horse’s lineage (do not name the sire/dam/other genetic relatives of the animal).
For non-UK passports that do contain details of the horse's lineage, owners should apply to a UK based studbook for an overstamp. A list of such organisations can be found on the gov.uk website.
For advice as to which UK based studbook would be most appropriate to overstamp your passport, please contact the BHS passport office.
Once the passport has been overstamped by a UK PIO it is then administered by that organisation, who have the authority to make future changes to the passport such as changes of ownership. The issuing PIO is informed of this by the UK PIO.
How to apply
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In order to apply for an overstamp with the BHS, owners must submit their horse’s passport to the office along with the BHS overstamp form completed in full by the registered owner of the animal. The BHS will not overstamp passports that have not already been registered in the name of the current owner-this must be done by the issuing body of the passport beforehand. If you are having difficulty changing the ownership, seek advice from the passport office.
The cost of this BHS service is £22.50 (17.50 for registered equine charities).
Owners with passports which are non-compliant or have pages missing will need to apply for an overseas duplicate passport. The original passport will be invalidated and destroyed unless the owner wishes to retain the original for their records (e.g. for vaccinations).
To be deemed compliant the passport must contain the following:
· A Unique Equine Life Number (UELN). This is sometimes referred to as the passport number and can be a combination of numbers and letters up to 15 characters/digits long (if the UELN is not 15 digits long, BHS may precede it with our PIO registration number)
- A completed identification of the horse in red ink and certified by an accredited vet as opposed to a photograph (ID charts drawn in black ink remain compliant under current UK legislation)
- Food chain status confirming whether the horse is intended for slaughter for human consumption
- A vaccination record bound within the pages of the passport
- Ownership pages
For assistance, contact the passport office.
Lost foreign passports
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If you have lost your horse’s passport which was issued outside the UK, you can apply to a UK based organisation for an overseas duplicate passport, which must be issued using the horse’s original UELN (passport number) – you must not apply for a new passport with a new UELN-by law, a horse must only have one UELN (universal equine life number) for the duration of their life.
- First, check the CED to identify whether the passport was overstamped by a UK PIO – if the UELN/microchip number produces a result, contact the PIO that comes up to enquire about applying for a duplicate
- If the passport was not overstamped by a UK PIO, you should apply to an organisation that offers overstamping services to produce a duplicate passport
BHS can produce an overseas duplicate passport for ID only documents that did not contain parentage testing (list the names of the sire/dam/other genetic relatives of the animal). You can contact the passport office to obtain the overseas duplicate passport application form if your lost foreign passport is eligible to be duplicated by BHS.
If the original passport contained parentage testing, you must choose the appropriate studbook PIO to duplicate the passport record. Contact the passport office for further information.
Learn more about horse passports
Find out how to apply for a horse passport and further information on the cost and processing time as well as what you need to check before applying.
