APHIS Updates Pet Travel Website With New Resources

APHIS Updates Pet Travel Website with New Resources

Many people see pets as important family members and want to include them on international trips.  For dogs and cats, there's a lot more to do than just buying a plane ticket.  To successfully complete the steps needed for pets to travel internationally and then return to the U.S., there are specific foreign country and U.S. requirements.  The process varies by country and by type of pet, and there are specific timeframes when steps must take place.

APHIS knows the process is complex and is committed to helping our customers - human and animal - meet the requirements.  With that in mind, APHIS recently made some changes to our Pet Travel website in order to make the whole process easier and less stressful.  These changes will benefit travelers and their veterinarians alike.

The new Helpful References page contains general information about the international pet movement process, including the steps involved and frequently asked questions (and answers).  The page also contains links to new materials in Spanish, Chinese, Korean and Portuguese that explain the steps in the process and how to use the pet travel website.

APHIS also made several changes to help accredited veterinarians through the process.  Accredited veterinarians are private veterinarians who take special training and are authorized to perform specific animal health tasks for APHIS.   In the case of pet travel, they are responsible for examining pets, completing necessary tests and filling out the required documentation.  To help them out, APHIS added a color-coded banner on the country-specific pages that will provide information about whether digital or hard copy signatures must be used, both by the accredited veterinarian and by the APHIS endorsing veterinarian.  USDA also updated the country-specific pages to add guidance documents and annotated certificates to help ensure the forms are completed correctly.

USDA launched this page a few years ago and it remains one of the most visited pages on our website.  Questions about pet travel are some of the most frequent calls received by the APHIS call center (1-844-820-2234).  These new resources will provide even more detail and assistance to ensure travelers can safely travel internationally with their beloved pets.