Moving Pets from South America to the United States

Moving pets from South America to the United States involves two separate federal classifications that don’t move together — and missing that is the easiest way to misjudge this continent. CDC’s dog-rabies risk tier splits the five countries this site covers into three high-risk (Brazil, Colombia, Venezuela) and two low-risk (Argentina, Chile). Separately, USDA’s screwworm-affected list covers four of the five — including Argentina, a CDC low-risk country. These aren’t the same list, and assuming they are is one of the easiest mistakes to make on this continent.

Current as of 2026. This guide summarizes patterns across this site’s own published South America 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 see which CDC risk tier and which USDA screwworm status apply to your country — they’re independent, so check both. 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 South America has two separate, independent federal classifications (CDC risk tier and USDA screwworm status) that don’t always align, how the three high-risk routes differ from each other, and how the two 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 South American country CDC high-risk for dogs? No. Brazil, Colombia, and Venezuela are; Argentina and Chile are low-risk, the same tier as every North America, Oceania, and Europe route this site covers.
• Does low-risk mean no extra USDA requirement at all? Not necessarily. Argentina is CDC low-risk but still USDA screwworm-affected — a separate classification requiring its own government-issued certificate.
• Is USDA’s screwworm requirement just a documentation-free precaution? No — that’s a common mix-up. The documentation-free clean-coat/bathe/isolate step is actually USDA’s FMD requirement. Screwworm status requires an actual certificate signed by a government veterinarian.
• Which country combines CDC low-risk status with being screwworm-free? Chile — the only one of the 5 that’s both.
• Do direct flights make Venezuela’s route easy? No — transport eligibility depends heavily on species and airline, and it’s currently harder for a dog than the resumed flights alone would suggest. Direct US-Venezuela flights resumed April 30, 2026 (United launches August 11, 2026), but American currently has no confirmed working pathway for a Venezuela-origin dog (both its carry-on and PetEmbark cargo options are blocked by the same CDC high-risk-country embargo), Copa’s cabin eligibility requires separately securing a matching CDC facility reservation and arrival airport, and United’s dog-cabin eligibility for this route isn’t confirmed either way. A cat isn’t caught by the CDC high-risk-country restriction driving most of this.
• Do cats face any of this? No. The specific pet-import requirements described here — CDC’s dog-rabies risk tier, the FMD precaution, the screwworm certificate — are all dog-specific. That doesn’t mean cats face zero US entry requirements from every agency, only that these particular rules don’t apply to them.

Two Classifications, Not One

A major planning mistake on this continent is treating “CDC risk tier” and “USDA screwworm status” as the same thing. They’re not — they’re separate federal classifications that happen to overlap for some countries and not others.

• CDC dog-rabies risk tier (3 of 5 high-risk): Brazil, Colombia, and Venezuela trigger the full CDC high-risk pathway — a reservation at a CDC-registered animal care facility, and either a valid rabies titer (avoiding the 28-day quarantine that’s otherwise part of that reservation) or the quarantine itself. Argentina and Chile use the standard low-risk pathway instead — no titer, no quarantine.
• USDA screwworm-affected status (4 of 5 affected): Argentina, Brazil, Colombia, and Venezuela all appear on USDA’s current screwworm-affected country list. Chile is the sole exception — the only one of the 5 not on that list at all.
• These two lists don’t line up. Argentina proves it: CDC low-risk (no titer, no quarantine) but still USDA screwworm-affected. No country covered here is CDC high-risk while being screwworm-free, but that’s simply because none of the three high-risk countries happens to also be screwworm-exempt — not because the two classifications are secretly the same rule.
• Get the screwworm mechanism right — it’s a certificate, not a light-touch precaution. A dog from a screwworm-affected country can only enter the US with a certificate signed by a full-time salaried government veterinarian, confirming the dog was inspected within 5 days before shipment and either is free of screwworm or was quarantined and treated until free. That applies to Argentina, Brazil, Colombia, and Venezuela — the federal requirement is the same across all four, even though only Argentina’s and Brazil’s own route guides currently document exactly how their country issues it. (The documentation-free precaution — clean coat/bedding, bathe on arrival, isolate from livestock 5 days — is a different USDA classification, for FMD-affected countries. It’s genuinely light-touch, but it’s not the screwworm requirement. Argentina’s and Brazil’s own current government export pages both confirm it directly — Argentina’s SENASA even links to a downloadable affidavit document literally titled “for vesicular diseases,” the disease family FMD belongs to, and its text matches the FMD precaution word-for-word.)
• Cats are unaffected by the pet-import requirements described here — CDC’s dog-rabies tier, the FMD precaution, and the screwworm certificate are all dog-specific. USDA APHIS Veterinary Services has no animal-health requirements for a pet cat entering the US from any foreign country — though CDC, state, and airline rules can still apply to cats separately.

Comparing the Three High-Risk Routes

Brazil, Colombia, and Venezuela share a CDC classification but not much else in how the route actually plays out.

Brazil’s own export authority is genuinely the slowest piece of the three — MAPA/VIGIAGRO recommends starting 60 days out, longer than either Colombia’s or Venezuela’s own export-side process. Brazil is screwworm-affected nationwide, with no state exception — the Santa Catarina carve-out you may see referenced applies to a different USDA classification (FMD and African Swine Fever), not screwworm, so it doesn’t reduce the screwworm certificate requirement anywhere in Brazil. Colombia’s export paperwork, by contrast, is fast once submitted; the CDC titer-testing sequence is what actually sets the floor on that route, the same way it does on this site’s other high-risk routes.

Venezuela is the most genuinely complicated of the three, and it’s worth getting right rather than flattening it into one rule. Direct US flights resumed April 30, 2026 (American, Miami-Caracas), with United (Houston-Caracas) launching August 11, 2026 — a real logistics improvement over routes needing a third-country layover. But pet transport eligibility on this route depends on species and airline, not a single blanket restriction:

• American: its cabin ban here isn’t a general “no South America pets” policy — American’s own no-carry-on list for South America actually names Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, and Uruguay, and Venezuela isn’t on it. What blocks a Venezuela-origin dog specifically is American’s separate “embargo on dogs from high-risk countries [for rabies],” which applies because Venezuela is CDC high-risk — that embargo doesn’t mention cats. It’s not just a cabin issue, either: American Airlines Cargo currently embargoes new PetEmbark bookings for dogs from any CDC high-risk-rabies country until further notice, so PetEmbark isn’t a working fallback right now.
• Copa: its current policy states plainly that small dogs and cats are accepted in the cabin on its network, which includes this route via its Panama City hub. That cabin eligibility isn’t the whole story, though — a Venezuela-origin dog still has to separately secure a reservation at a CDC-registered animal care facility and arrive at that specific facility’s airport (the airport listed on the dog’s CDC Dog Import Form receipt), not just any CDC-approved airport. Cabin eligibility on Copa is a real step forward, but it’s conditioned on that facility/airport match, not a standalone “this route works” answer.
• United: its PetSafe cargo program has been discontinued for the general public since 2018 and hasn’t been reinstated — a real change from what you might read elsewhere. Whether United’s general cabin policy (which does accept small dogs) applies the same way to a Venezuela-origin high-risk-country dog isn’t confirmed on United’s own page — that’s an open question, not a known restriction.

The upshot: a dog from Venezuela currently has no confirmed working transport option on American (both carry-on and cargo are blocked by the same high-risk-country embargo), a real but conditional option on Copa (cabin-eligible, but only once the CDC facility/airport match is in place), and an unconfirmed picture on United. A cat isn’t caught by the CDC high-risk-country restriction driving most of this, and may have more options than the dog picture suggests.

Comparing the Two Low-Risk Routes

Argentina and Chile are both CDC low-risk, but their own export processes — and their screwworm status — differ.

Chile is the only one of the 5 South American origins this site covers that’s both CDC low-risk and screwworm-free — that specific combination is confirmed, even though other factors (cost, airline access, exact timing) aren’t fully compared across all five routes here. Argentina’s own government export page lists three separate items for this exact route: the CVI, an actual screwworm-freedom certificate, and a separate affidavit covering the FMD precaution (clean coat/bedding, bathe on arrival, isolate from livestock 5 days) — that last one is directly confirmed, not just inferred: SENASA links to a downloadable affidavit document literally named “for vesicular diseases” (FMD’s disease family), and its actual text matches the precaution word-for-word. The screwworm-freedom certificate itself is completed by a private licensed veterinarian, but it doesn’t stand alone — the owner presents it to SENASA, Argentina’s national government agricultural-health authority, which reviews it and issues the CVI. It’s SENASA’s own government-issued CVI, not the private veterinarian’s certificate by itself, that satisfies the US requirement for a certificate signed by a government veterinary official. (USDA’s screwworm rule technically allows a country to fold that certificate into a broader export health certificate instead — Argentina’s SENASA effectively does this through the CVI.) Argentina’s timeline isn’t set by the CVI’s own validity, either — that’s a common misreading. The actual SENASA rule is that the underlying vet exam must be recent, not that the certificate itself expires after 5 days. What actually sets the timeline is needing that exam close to departure, plus two in-person SENASA visits rather than Argentina’s faster digital option, which doesn’t cover the US.

Don’t see your country? This site’s South America 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 South America

These mistakes come from treating two separate classifications as one, or assuming a route-specific detail applies more broadly than it does:

• Assuming CDC risk tier and USDA screwworm status are the same classification — Argentina is CDC low-risk but still USDA screwworm-affected.
• Assuming the screwworm requirement is just a documentation-free precaution — it’s an actual certificate, signed by a government veterinarian after inspecting the dog within 5 days of shipment. The documentation-free clean-coat/bathe/isolate step is a separate classification (FMD), confirmed for Argentina and Brazil via each country’s own current export requirements.
• Assuming FMD status is a simple country-level yes/no — USDA’s own data can split it by region within a country; treat “Argentina/Brazil is FMD-affected” as grounded in each country’s own current export paperwork here, not a blanket regional classification.
• Assuming Argentina’s export certificate itself expires after 5 days — the actual rule is that the underlying veterinary exam must be recent, not the certificate.
• Assuming Colombia’s or Venezuela’s paperwork is the bottleneck on a high-risk move — for Colombia specifically, the CDC titer sequence is the real constraint, not the comparatively fast ICA process.
• Assuming Venezuela’s transport restriction is a single “cargo-hold only” rule that applies the same way to every airline and every pet. It isn’t. American’s restriction is a dog-specific CDC high-risk-country embargo that currently blocks both its cabin and its PetEmbark cargo option, not a South America-wide policy. Copa’s current policy allows cabin pets, but only once the dog has a matching CDC facility reservation and arrival airport. United’s cargo option has been discontinued for the public since 2018, and its cabin eligibility for a high-risk-country dog isn’t confirmed. Check the specific airline and species, not a blanket rule.
• Assuming a cat faces the same Venezuela transport restrictions as a dog — the CDC high-risk-country embargo behind most of the cabin restrictions is dog/rabies-specific and doesn’t apply to cats the same way.
• Assuming the US-vaccinated exception only applies where a route’s own research states a specific time-savings figure — it’s a general federal rule based on the dog’s own vaccination history, not a country-specific pathway.
• Assuming FMD or screwworm status is itself a dog-only concept — the classifications are general; only the specific pet-import requirements built on them are dog-specific. USDA APHIS Veterinary Services has no animal-health requirements for cats from any country (other agencies, states, and airlines can still have their own cat rules).

Related Guides

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