diff --git a/doc/source/whatsnew/v1.4.0.rst b/doc/source/whatsnew/v1.4.0.rst
index 4f7eb7c87b260..1765b22dda05f 100644
--- a/doc/source/whatsnew/v1.4.0.rst
+++ b/doc/source/whatsnew/v1.4.0.rst
@@ -655,7 +655,7 @@ Conversion
 
 Strings
 ^^^^^^^
--
+- Fixed bug in checking for ``string[pyarrow]`` dtype incorrectly raising an ImportError when pyarrow is not installed (:issue:`44327`)
 -
 
 Interval
diff --git a/pandas/core/dtypes/common.py b/pandas/core/dtypes/common.py
index 72cc28c1dd66d..75689b8dba8f5 100644
--- a/pandas/core/dtypes/common.py
+++ b/pandas/core/dtypes/common.py
@@ -613,7 +613,7 @@ def is_dtype_equal(source, target) -> bool:
                 src = get_dtype(source)
                 if isinstance(src, ExtensionDtype):
                     return src == target
-            except (TypeError, AttributeError):
+            except (TypeError, AttributeError, ImportError):
                 return False
     elif isinstance(source, str):
         return is_dtype_equal(target, source)
@@ -622,7 +622,7 @@ def is_dtype_equal(source, target) -> bool:
         source = get_dtype(source)
         target = get_dtype(target)
         return source == target
-    except (TypeError, AttributeError):
+    except (TypeError, AttributeError, ImportError):
 
         # invalid comparison
         # object == category will hit this
diff --git a/pandas/tests/dtypes/test_common.py b/pandas/tests/dtypes/test_common.py
index be5cb81506efd..7f1bcecc31d26 100644
--- a/pandas/tests/dtypes/test_common.py
+++ b/pandas/tests/dtypes/test_common.py
@@ -115,6 +115,7 @@ def test_period_dtype(self, dtype):
     "float": np.dtype(np.float64),
     "object": np.dtype(object),
     "category": com.pandas_dtype("category"),
+    "string": pd.StringDtype(),
 }
 
 
@@ -128,6 +129,12 @@ def test_dtype_equal(name1, dtype1, name2, dtype2):
         assert not com.is_dtype_equal(dtype1, dtype2)
 
 
+@pytest.mark.parametrize("name,dtype", list(dtypes.items()), ids=lambda x: str(x))
+def test_pyarrow_string_import_error(name, dtype):
+    # GH-44276
+    assert not com.is_dtype_equal(dtype, "string[pyarrow]")
+
+
 @pytest.mark.parametrize(
     "dtype1,dtype2",
     [