This article was published in August 2026 and reflects USDA APHIS requirements and endorsement fees current as of that date.
A USDA-endorsed health certificate is the official export document that proves your pet meets the entry requirements of the country you are moving to. A USDA-accredited veterinarian completes and signs it, and then USDA APHIS reviews it, countersigns it, and stamps it. Most countries will not let your dog or cat in without one, and most airlines will not board a pet without it either.
We have been relocating pets around the world for more than 25 years, and if there is one step where a do-it-yourself move tends to come apart, this is it. Not because the paperwork is impossible, but because the timing is tight, the requirements are set by the destination country rather than by the United States, and a small mistake on a form can turn into a missed flight or a quarantine stay.
Here is how the process works, from your first vet call through the stamped certificate that flies with your pet.
The short version
- Your paperwork has to start with a USDA-accredited veterinarian, which is not the same thing as any licensed veterinarian.
- Your destination country sets the rules, and those rules can change at any time.
- Most countries require APHIS to endorse the certificate before your pet travels, but not all of them do.
- APHIS endorsement fees start at $101 per certificate and rise when lab tests are involved.
- Once your veterinarian signs the certificate, you may have a very short window to get it endorsed and fly.
- The original stamped paperwork must physically travel with your pet. Electronic copies are not accepted at the border.
What is a USDA endorsed health certificate?
A USDA endorsed health certificate is an international health certificate that has been countersigned and embossed or stamped by USDA APHIS. The endorsement is the government confirming that your pet’s export paperwork has been reviewed and is in order for the destination country.
It helps to be clear about what that endorsement does and does not mean. APHIS endorses the export documents. It does not approve your pet for entry into another country. The decision to admit your pet is made by the destination country’s veterinary authority and enforced by their border officials when you land. An endorsement also does not guarantee that your airline will accept the booking, because airlines set their own pet policies on top of government rules.
This is also the document most people are really asking about when they use the phrase “pet passport.” We wrote a fuller explanation of that terminology in our guide to whether cats and dogs need passports, but the short answer is that the health certificate is the substance behind the nickname.
Does my pet actually need a USDA-endorsed health certificate?
It depends entirely on where you are going. Some countries require a USDA-endorsed certificate, some accept a certificate signed by an accredited veterinarian without federal endorsement, and a few have additional layers such as import permits or consulate approval. There is no universal answer, which is exactly why assumptions get people into trouble.
APHIS publishes requirements by destination, and the agency is direct about the fact that country requirements can change frequently and should be verified every single time you travel. A route you flew two years ago may not work the same way today.
It also matters what kind of animal you have. APHIS treats dogs, cats, ferrets, rabbits, rodents, hedgehogs and tenrecs, reptiles, amphibians, and certain birds as pets for the purposes of pet travel. Birds regulated as poultry, including chickens, ducks, geese, pigeons, and turkeys, fall under different export rules entirely.
Why can’t my regular veterinarian sign the health certificate?
Because export health certificates can only be issued by a USDA-accredited veterinarian. Accreditation comes from completing formal training through the National Veterinary Accreditation Program; it is specific to the state where the veterinarian is licensed, and it is voluntary, so plenty of excellent veterinarians are not accredited.
This trips up more families than almost anything else. Someone books an appointment with the clinic they have used for a decade, gets the exam done, and only afterward learns the signature will not be accepted. You can confirm accreditation ahead of time using the APHIS accredited veterinarian search.
When you call, have this information ready, because your veterinarian will need all of it:
- The type of pet traveling
- The destination country
- Any countries where your pet will clear customs or leave the airport in transit
- Your departure date from the United States
- Whether your pet is flying in the cabin, as checked baggage, or as manifest cargo
Is APHIS Form 7001 the right form for my country?
Sometimes, and sometimes not. APHIS Form 7001, the United States Interstate and International Certificate of Health Examination for Small Animals, is the general-purpose small animal health certificate. Some destinations accept it. Others require their own country-specific certificate with exact wording, specific test panels, particular treatment windows, and their own endorsement steps.
Using the wrong form is one of the more painful mistakes to make, because you usually do not find out until the certificate is already signed and the clock is running. Check your destination’s page on the APHIS site before your veterinarian fills out anything. If your country is not listed, APHIS maintains a page for unknown requirements that explains what to do next.
How does the USDA endorsement process work?
Once your accredited veterinarian has completed, signed, and dated the certificate, there are two ways to get it to USDA. APHIS is emphatic that you should use one or the other, never both.
Option 1: Electronic submission through VEHCS
Your veterinarian submits the certificate on your behalf through the Veterinary Export Health Certification System, known as VEHCS. This is the faster and more common route. The submission has to include the health certificate, vaccination certificates if the destination requires vaccination, lab test results if tests are required, an import permit if one is required, and payment. If the destination country does not accept a digital endorsement, a prepaid express shipping label goes in as well so the stamped original can be mailed back.
Option 2: Shipping the original certificate to USDA
Your veterinarian hands you the signed original, and you ship the whole package to the APHIS endorsement office serving your state. APHIS recommends overnight express service such as FedEx or UPS. Your package needs all original documents, payment, and a self-addressed prepaid express return label with your own name and address in both the to and from fields.
A detail worth knowing: ground services do not pick up from APHIS offices, so choosing ground shipping for the return label can cost you a business day. APHIS publishes a checklist for shipping health certificates that is worth printing and following line by line.
Either way, incomplete submissions or incorrect information will hold up the endorsement until your veterinarian or you can correct the problem. When your flight is booked and the certificate has a short validity window, that delay is the thing that hurts.
How much does USDA endorsement cost?
APHIS charges an endorsement fee for each health certificate or export document. The fee depends on how many laboratory tests the destination country requires and how many pets are listed on the certificate. Vaccines do not count as tests for fee purposes.
| Number of lab tests required | Number of pets | APHIS fee per certificate |
| 0 | Any | $101 per certificate |
| 1 to 2 | 1 | $160 |
| 1 to 2 | 2 or more | $160 for the first pet, plus $10 for each additional pet on the same certificate |
| 3 to 6 | 1 | $206 |
| 3 to 6 | 2 or more | $206 for the first pet, plus $18 for each additional pet on the same certificate |
| 7 or more | 1 | $275 |
| 7 or more | 2 or more | $275 for the first pet, plus $21 for each additional pet on the same certificate |
These figures come from the APHIS cost to endorse page and cover the federal endorsement only. They do not include what your veterinarian charges for the exam, the certificate, vaccines, microchipping, or lab work, and they do not include airline fees, crates, or import permits. If you want the fuller picture, we break that down in our guide to international pet relocation costs.
One exception worth noting: APHIS does not charge endorsement fees for service dogs belonging to individuals with disabilities as defined by the Americans with Disabilities Act. Emotional support animals are not covered by that exemption and are charged the standard fee.
How long does the health certificate process take?
The health certificate itself is one of the last steps, but the requirements behind it can start months earlier. That sequencing is what catches people off guard.
A typical order of operations looks like this. The microchip goes in first, because many countries will not count a rabies vaccination given before the microchip was implanted. The rabies vaccination follows. If your destination requires a rabies antibody titer test, blood is drawn after that vaccination, and some countries then impose a waiting period of three months or longer between the blood draw and arrival. Import permits, where required, are applied for in parallel. Only then does the health examination happen, usually within a tight window of your departure date, followed by endorsement.
That window after signature is the part to watch. As APHIS puts it, once your accredited veterinarian signs the certificate, you may have a limited amount of time to get it endorsed and travel before the destination country will no longer accept it. For some countries that window is 30 days. For others it is 10 days or less. Book the exam too early and the certificate expires. Book it too late and there is no room left for endorsement.
As a working rule, we tell families to allow at least 30 days for straightforward destinations and anywhere from four to seven months for rabies-free or quarantine countries such as Australia, New Zealand, Japan, and Hawaii. Our international pet relocation timeline walks through the full schedule.
Why do health certificates get delayed or rejected?
After 25 years of submissions, the failure patterns are remarkably consistent. These are the ones we see most often:
- The microchip number on the certificate does not match the number on the vaccination record, often because of a single transposed digit.
- The rabies vaccination was given before the microchip was implanted, so the destination country will not count it.
- The veterinarian who signed is licensed but not USDA accredited.
- The wrong certificate was used, usually the general form when a country-specific one was required.
- Required lab results or the import permit were not included in the submission.
- Dates do not line up, either because a test fell outside its valid window or the exam happened too early.
- Handwriting is illegible, or a field was left blank.
- The return shipping label was missing, unpaid, or set to a ground service.
Most of these are small. All of them can stop a flight. APHIS offers a pet owner worksheet to help you track the pieces, and our own pet moving checklist covers the wider move.
What happens if the paperwork is wrong on travel day?
Nothing good, and it usually happens at the worst possible moment. Airlines check documents at the counter and will deny boarding if anything is missing, expired, or inconsistent. We have seen pets fully booked and crate trained and ready to go, stopped because one document had lapsed by a couple of days.
If a problem is not caught until arrival, the consequences escalate. Depending on the country, your pet may be held at the border, placed into quarantine at your expense, or in the worst cases refused entry and returned to the United States. Remember too that the original signed or endorsed paperwork must accompany your pet. Officials at the destination will not accept an electronic version on your phone.
Do I need a USDA endorsed health certificate to move to Hawaii?
No, because Hawaii is a domestic move and there is no USDA export endorsement involved. Hawaii does, however, run its own rabies quarantine program with strict documentation, timing, and testing requirements of its own, and it is arguably stricter than many international destinations. We cover it separately in our guide to moving your pets to Hawaii.
What about bringing my dog back into the United States?
This catches returning families constantly, so it deserves its own flag. For dogs entering or returning to the United States, the CDC is the primary federal authority, not APHIS.
If your dog is traveling to or returning from a country the CDC considers high risk for dog rabies, a Certification of U.S. Issued Rabies Vaccination form must be completed by a USDA accredited veterinarian before your dog leaves the United States. APHIS states plainly that this form cannot be issued retroactively once your dog has departed.
In other words, a document you may not need until you come home has to be handled before you go. If there is any chance of a return trip, sort this out during the outbound planning. The CDC dog importation pages have the current details.
Should you handle the health certificate yourself or use a pet relocation company?
We will give you an honest answer rather than a sales pitch. If you are moving to a country with straightforward requirements, you have an accredited veterinarian who has done international certificates before, and you have several months of runway, plenty of families manage this themselves.
The calculation changes when the variables stack up. Rabies-free countries with titer tests and multi-month waiting periods, destinations that require import permits or consulate legalization, connecting itineraries that route through a third country, snub nosed breeds with airline restrictions, or a corporate relocation date that will not move for anyone. In those situations, the cost of getting it wrong is far higher than the cost of getting help.
What we do is manage the whole sequence so the pieces land in the right order: confirming current destination requirements, coordinating with an accredited veterinarian, tracking every deadline, preparing and submitting the endorsement package, arranging an airline compliant travel crate, booking the flight, and handling customs clearance on arrival. You can read more about what a pet moving service actually does if you are weighing it up.
Frequently asked questions
How long is a USDA-endorsed health certificate valid?
There is no single answer, because validity is set by the destination country rather than by USDA. Some countries accept a certificate endorsed within 30 days of travel, while others require the exam and endorsement within 10 days of arrival. The European Union, for example, works on a tight window before arrival. Always confirm the specific window for your destination before scheduling the vet exam.
Can I get a pet health certificate online?
No. Any website offering an instant downloadable pet passport or health certificate is not legitimate. A valid certificate requires a physical examination by a USDA-accredited veterinarian, and where endorsement is required, it must be processed by APHIS. Your veterinarian can submit electronically through VEHCS, but the exam and the accreditation are not optional.
Does my cat need a USDA-endorsed health certificate too?
Yes, in most cases. Cats follow the same export framework as dogs, and depending on the destination, the requirements can be just as demanding. Microchipping, rabies vaccination, titer testing, and endorsement all apply to cats where the destination country requires them.
Can one certificate cover more than one pet?
Often yes, depending on the destination country and the certificate being used. When multiple pets are listed on the same certificate, APHIS charges the base fee for the first pet plus a smaller additional fee for each additional pet on that certificate. Not every country allows it, so confirm before assuming.
What if my destination country is not listed on the APHIS website?
APHIS maintains a page for destinations with unknown requirements. In that situation, you will generally need to contact the destination country’s embassy or veterinary authority directly to confirm what they require, and your accredited veterinarian can help interpret the response.
Do I still need a health certificate if my pet flies in the cabin?
Yes. Cabin travel changes the logistics, not the paperwork. Destination country entry requirements apply regardless of whether your pet flies in the cabin, as checked baggage, or as cargo, and airlines enforce them at check-in. We cover the cabin option in our article on pets as carry-on luggage.
Getting it right the first time
The USDA-endorsed health certificate is not so much complicated as unforgiving. The rules belong to the destination country, the timing windows are narrow, the sequence matters, and there is no partial credit for a form that is nearly right. Start early, work with an accredited veterinarian from the beginning, and verify your destination’s requirements yourself rather than relying on what was true last year.
If you would rather not carry that on your own, our team handles this process every day for families, military members, and corporate transferees moving all over the world. We will confirm your destination’s current requirements, coordinate the veterinary work, manage the endorsement submission, and make sure the right stamped paperwork is in hand when your pet flies. Learn more about our international pet relocation services, or fill out our price quote form and we will put together a free estimate for your move.
Requirements for international pet travel change frequently and vary by destination, so this article is general guidance rather than official advice for your specific route. Always verify current requirements with USDA APHIS, your destination country’s veterinary authority, and a USDA-accredited veterinarian before making travel arrangements.
