Taking a dog or cat abroad is less a packing exercise than a paperwork project. Most of the things that go wrong are not about the animal. They are about a missing signature, an endorsement that was never obtained, or a form that had to be completed before departure and cannot be fixed afterwards. This guide, written for travellers leaving the United States, sets out the checks that matter and the order to do them in. It is based on the guidance published by the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service, known as APHIS, which is the authoritative source and should be your first stop.
The requirements are per trip, not per pet
The most useful habit is to check your destination’s requirements every time you plan to travel, not once. Rules change, and a process that worked on a previous trip is not a guarantee that the same paperwork will be accepted next time, even for the same country. Start with the country-specific page on the APHIS pet travel site, and treat anything you remember from an earlier trip as a prompt to check, not as an answer.
The health certificate and who can issue it
Most countries ask for a health certificate. For small animals this is typically the U.S. Interstate and International Certificate for Health Examination for Small Animals, known as APHIS Form 7001. It has to be completed by a federally accredited veterinarian, and for most destinations it must then be endorsed by USDA. That two-step structure is where trouble starts. A vet examining your pet and signing a form is not automatically enough. The USDA endorsement is a separate, additional step, and skipping it because your vet has already signed something is the kind of gap that causes a real problem at the destination, not a technicality.
A smaller number of countries require only that the examining veterinarian is licensed in your state, without the endorsement. That is exactly why you should check your specific destination instead of assuming one standard applies everywhere.
The rabies rule with a hard deadline
For dogs travelling to or returning from a country that is designated high-risk for dog rabies, a separate form called the Certification of U.S.-Issued Rabies Vaccination must be completed by a USDA-accredited veterinarian and submitted before the dog leaves the United States. The official guidance is specific that this form cannot be issued retroactively once the dog has already left the country. If it is missed, there is no repair after the fact. It has to be handled in advance, with real lead time, and not left until you realise it is needed.
Carry the original, not a copy
The original USDA-endorsed hard copy of the health certificate has to travel with your pet to the destination. A photo, scan or photocopy is not described as sufficient in the official guidance. In an era where most travel documents have gone digital, this is easy to underestimate. Keep the original somewhere secure and easy to reach, such as a document folder in your carry-on, and not buried in checked luggage. A digital copy is still useful as a backup, but it is not a replacement.
Two separate checks: the country and the airline
There are documented cases where a destination country does not require a particular certification, but the airline carrying the animal does, as its own policy. The government requirement is necessary but not always sufficient. Check your airline’s pet travel rules separately, including whether pets may travel in the cabin or only in the hold, any carrier size limits, breed or season restrictions, and how far ahead you must notify the airline. Airlines often limit the number of animals on each flight, so this is not something to leave until the week before you fly.
A practical sequence
- Check the APHIS requirements for your exact destination, for this specific trip, even if you have travelled with the same pet before.
- Book the accredited veterinarian early. Both the endorsement and any rabies certification have their own timelines, separate from your travel dates, and your own vet may or may not be accredited.
- Confirm your airline’s pet policy independently of the destination’s rules, and book the pet’s place when you book your own seat.
- Carry the original hard copy of the certificate for the journey itself.
- Plan the return journey too. Re-entry to the United States has its own requirements, particularly for dogs coming back from high-risk rabies countries, so look at the way home before you leave.
Where this fits in your wider planning
Pet travel adds a second layer of documents to your own. Make sure your own papers are in order too; our guide to what to do if a passport goes missing is a useful reminder of why copies of key documents matter. If you are travelling to a resort, ask the property directly whether animals are allowed at all, because many all-inclusive resorts do not accept pets. Our guide to how to choose an all-inclusive resort includes the sort of questions worth asking before you commit.
It is also sensible to think about the practical side of the trip. Plan how the animal will cope with the journey, how long it will be in a carrier, and where it will stay once you arrive. Talk to your veterinarian about the length of the flight and your pet’s health before you book, and include the cost of the paperwork in your budget, since certificates, endorsements and airline fees can add up.
What this guide does not do
We are not listing individual country requirements here. The APHIS site is the authoritative, current, country-specific reference, and any static list on this page would go stale and cause precisely the mistake this guide exists to prevent. We are also not covering travel within the United States, which follows different rules, or the import requirements for bringing a pet into the country from abroad beyond the reminder to check them. For those, go straight to the official source and give yourself more time than you think you need.