Moving Pets from Asia to the United States

Moving pets from Asia to the United States looks different depending entirely on which country you start from. Every continent this site has covered so far — North America, Oceania, Europe — is uniformly CDC low-risk for dog rabies. Asia isn’t. Four of the seven countries covered here are CDC high-risk, triggering a genuinely different, longer, and more document-heavy process than the low-risk pathway this site’s other continents use. The other three are low-risk like everywhere else. Knowing which group your country falls into changes almost everything about how you plan this move.

Current as of 2026. This guide summarizes patterns across this site’s own published Asia route guides. Requirements can change — always confirm current details directly with CDC and the relevant national authority before you travel, and check the specific route guide linked below for your move’s full, sourced requirements.

What This Guide Does — and Doesn’t — Cover

Use this guide to find out which of Asia’s two risk tiers your country falls into, and what’s genuinely different within each tier. Then go to your specific route guide for the exact paperwork, and to this site’s general US-entry and species guides for the destination-side federal framework in general terms — which pathway actually applies still depends on your dog’s own travel history and risk classification.

• This guide: why Asia splits into CDC high-risk and low-risk countries, how the four high-risk routes differ from each other, and how the three low-risk routes differ from each other.
• Your country’s route guide: exact documents, timeline, airline options, and costs for that specific route.
• General US-entry guides: Bringing a Dog to the United States and Bringing a Cat to the United States cover the destination-side CDC/USDA framework in general terms — but which pathway actually applies to a dog depends on its own travel history and risk classification, not on picking a guide. Cats face the same federal rules regardless of origin; dogs don’t.

Quick Answers

Here’s the short version before the full explanation below:

• Is every Asian country CDC high-risk for dogs? No. China, India, Russia, and the UAE are; Hong Kong, Japan, and Singapore are low-risk, the same tier as every other continent this site covers.
• Is Hong Kong treated the same as mainland China? No — CDC’s high-risk list names China but explicitly excludes Hong Kong, Macau, and Taiwan.
• Can a high-risk-country move ever be fast? Yes, sometimes dramatically — a dog with a USDA-endorsed Certification of U.S.-issued Rabies Vaccination form (a specific CDC/USDA document, not an ordinary vaccination certificate) can skip the titer test, facility reservation, and airport restriction entirely, regardless of which high-risk country it’s coming from. The UAE’s own research shows this can cut months down to as little as 2–3 weeks.
• Which Asian country has the longest planning window? Russia, at an estimated 4–6 months (an editorial planning estimate, not a government-mandated floor) — among the longest on the entire site, and not just because of paperwork; limited service providers and routing options add real time too.
• Do cats face the high-risk pathway too? No. CDC’s high-risk/low-risk framework applies to dogs only — cats face no CDC risk-tier pathway from any of these 7 countries.

Why Asia Splits Into Two Genuinely Different Tiers

Every other continent this site covers is uniformly CDC low-risk. Asia is the first one where that assumption breaks — and getting your own country’s tier wrong is the single biggest planning mistake possible on this continent.

• High-risk (4 of 7): China, India, Russia, United Arab Emirates. Dogs from these countries face the full CDC high-risk pathway: microchip before vaccination, a reservation at a CDC-registered animal care facility for an exam and US revaccination, and arrival specifically at the airport where that facility is located. A valid rabies antibody titer (drawn at least 30 days after vaccination, and at least 28 days before US entry) isn’t a separate hard requirement — it’s how a dog avoids the 28-day quarantine that’s otherwise part of that same facility reservation (CDC says this quarantine period can be shortened if certain criteria are met). Without a valid titer, the reservation must include the quarantine instead; either way, the dog is entering the US.
• Low-risk (3 of 7): Hong Kong, Japan, Singapore. Dogs from these countries use the same standard pathway as this site’s North America, Oceania, and Europe routes — CDC Dog Import Form, microchip, no titer, no quarantine.
• Cats are unaffected either way. CDC’s risk-tier framework is a dog-only concept, and USDA APHIS Veterinary Services states plainly it has no animal-health requirements for bringing a pet cat into the US from a foreign country. A cat from China faces the same federal animal-health treatment as a cat from Japan.
• Don’t assume a related country shares the same tier. Hong Kong is the clearest example on this site: CDC’s own high-risk list names the entry “China (excluding Hong Kong, Macau, and Taiwan)” in those exact words.
• The “US-vaccinated exception” is the biggest lever for a high-risk-country move — and it’s a general federal rule, not a country-specific perk. A dog with a USDA-endorsed Certification of U.S.-issued Rabies Vaccination form — a specific CDC/USDA document completed by a USDA-accredited vet before the dog leaves the US, not an ordinary vaccination certificate — skips the titer test, the facility reservation, and the airport restriction entirely, based on the dog’s own vaccination history rather than which of these four countries it’s coming from. (A USDA-endorsed export health certificate issued no later than July 31, 2025 can substitute for this form if it meets CDC’s specific criteria — but that option isn’t available for certificates issued after that date.) The UAE’s own route research gives a concrete estimate of the savings (2–3 weeks); China’s and India’s research don’t provide their own specific figures, and Russia’s doesn’t discuss the exception at all — but the underlying federal rule applies the same way regardless.

Comparing the Four High-Risk Routes

These four aren’t interchangeable versions of the same difficult move — they differ in export authority and realistic planning time.

Russia’s 4–6 month window is an editorial planning estimate, not a government-stated minimum — but it’s among the longest this site has researched for any continent. It’s comparable to Australia’s 3–6 month recommended window on the Oceania guide, also an editorial estimate rather than a government minimum. Russia’s has a higher realistic floor, though — it has no faster best-case scenario the way Australia’s does for an already-microchipped pet. That route’s own research also points to limited service providers and routing options as a separate cause, not paperwork alone.

Comparing the Three Low-Risk Routes

Even within the “easy” tier, the origin side genuinely differs — the same lesson this site’s Europe guide already established.

Singapore is the fastest planning window on this entire continent. Singapore Airlines’ own official checklist confirms pets can travel as checked baggage (up to 32kg combined with the carrier) rather than needing dedicated cargo — a booking flexibility most other Asia routes don’t share. (Contacting the airline at least two weeks ahead is also commonly cited for this route, though that specific figure traces to indexed page content rather than a document this project could directly verify.) Japan is genuinely slower than its CDC classification alone would suggest. Its own export authority requires advance booking. And if the pet was previously imported into Japan, the original import certificate is required for export — it can’t be reissued if lost.

Don’t see your country? This site’s Asia coverage is still growing — check International Pet Travel Requirements by Country for the full, current list of every country covered so far.

Common Mistakes When Moving Pets from Asia

These mistakes come from misreading which tier a country falls into, or assuming every country in a tier behaves the same way:

• Assuming Hong Kong shares mainland China’s CDC high-risk classification — CDC’s own list names the entry “China (excluding Hong Kong, Macau, and Taiwan).”
• Assuming a valid titer is required just to enter the US from a high-risk country — it’s one of two ways to avoid the 28-day quarantine at the CDC-registered facility, not a hard prerequisite for entry itself.
• Assuming the US-vaccinated exception is a country-specific perk rather than a general federal rule — it applies to all four high-risk countries this site covers, including Russia, even though only the UAE’s own research gives a specific time-savings figure.
• Assuming every low-risk country is equally fast — Japan’s own export process makes it meaningfully slower than Hong Kong or Singapore despite an identical CDC classification.
• Underestimating Russia’s timeline by treating it like an ordinary high-risk route instead of one also shaped by limited service providers and routing.
• Assuming a cat needs to follow the same high-risk pathway as a dog from the same country — CDC’s risk-tier system never applies to cats, and USDA APHIS Veterinary Services has no animal-health requirements for a pet cat entering the US from any foreign country.

Related Guides

• International Pet Travel Requirements by Country
• Moving Pets from Europe to the United States
• Moving Pets from Oceania to the United States
• CDC High-Risk Countries Explained
• CDC Low-Risk Countries Explained