Every dog entering the United States needs a CDC Dog Import Form receipt — that part doesn’t change no matter where your dog is coming from. This guide walks through the form itself: who fills it out, what each section asks, how submission and the receipt work, and how the receipt gets used at the airport and border. If you haven’t yet figured out which pathway applies to your dog — rabies-free/low-risk, U.S.-vaccinated from a high-risk country, or foreign-vaccinated from a high-risk country — start with Bringing a Dog to the United States first, then come back here for the form mechanics.
The requirements described here are current as of 2026. CDC updates its import rules periodically, so check the CDC Dog Import Form and Instructions page directly for the current rules before you travel.
Before You Start
Have these ready before you open the form:
- The importer’s date of birth, plus a passport number, driver’s license number, or air waybill/bill of lading number
- An email address you check regularly (your receipt goes here) and a phone number
- Your dog’s name, age, sex, breed, and color/markings
- Your planned country of departure and an approximate arrival date
If your dog has been in a CDC high-risk country for dog rabies in the last 6 months, also have ready:
- Your dog’s microchip number, plus a recent photo showing its face and body (.jpg, .jpeg, or .png, under 10MB)
- Either a Certification of U.S.-issued Rabies Vaccination form, or a Certification of Foreign Rabies Vaccination and Microchip form endorsed by an official government veterinarian
- If your dog is on the foreign-vaccinated pathway, a confirmed reservation at a CDC-registered animal care facility
- The U.S. address where your dog will be located, plus contact information for whoever will receive the dog there
Who Needs This Form
Every dog entering the U.S. needs a CDC Dog Import Form receipt, regardless of pathway. There’s no cap on how many dogs one person can bring in, but each dog needs its own form and its own receipt — you can’t cover multiple dogs on one submission.
Who Can Fill It Out
Normally, the importer fills it out themselves — that’s the owner, the shipper (consignor), a “flight parent” (someone transporting a dog for rescue, resale, or adoption on someone else’s behalf), or anyone else bringing the dog into the country.
If the importer has a disability that makes completing the form difficult, someone else can fill it out on their behalf — a family member, a travel companion, even airline staff. That person needs to read the attestation statements aloud to the importer, confirm the importer understands and agrees to the terms, and sign as “[their name] on behalf of [importer’s name].” CDC-INFO (800-232-4636, TTY 888-232-6348) can also help directly — mention your travel date so they can expedite if needed.
Filling Out the Form
The form opens with one gating question: has the dog been in a CDC high-risk country for dog rabies in the last 6 months? Your answer determines which of the remaining fields you’ll see.
Section A: Person Importing the Animal
You’ll need the importer’s date of birth plus one of: a passport number and issuing country, a driver’s license number and issuing state/country, or an air waybill/bill of lading number. You’ll also enter an email address and phone number — CDC specifically flags the email field as worth double-checking, since that’s where your receipt gets sent.
You can add one consignee or additional owner per dog, giving them equal traveling rights — they’ll need to provide their own ID and email too.
If your dog has been in a high-risk country, this section also asks for the physical U.S. address where the dog will be located, plus the name, phone, and email of whoever will receive the dog there (which can be the same person traveling with it).
Section B: Animal Information
Name, age, sex, breed (or “mixed breed/other”), and color/markings, plus the importation purpose — one of five categories:
- Personal Pet — includes emotional support animals
- Commercial — adoption, resale, or transfer on behalf of a rescue organization or business
- Service Animal — only for dogs meeting the federal definition (14 CFR 382.3) and traveling with the person they’re trained to assist; emotional support and comfort animals don’t qualify for this category specifically
- Government-Owned — working dogs serving official government duties
- Education, Exhibition, or Research — university-level teaching, public exhibition performance, or a defined research protocol
If your dog has been in a high-risk country, this section also asks for the microchip number (it must match your dog’s official veterinary documentation) and a photo showing the dog’s face and body (.jpg, .jpeg, or .png, up to 10MB). If your dog is under a year old, that photo needs to have been taken within 15 days of arrival.
Section C: Travel Information
This is where the two pathways diverge the most.
If your dog has only been in rabies-free or low-risk countries, you’ll pick a travel type (air, land, or sea), a country of departure (only low-risk/rabies-free countries appear in the dropdown), and an arrival date — an approximate date is fine if you don’t know the exact one yet.
If your dog has been in a high-risk country, the form asks a couple of branching questions first:
- Does the dog have a Certification of U.S.-issued Rabies Vaccination form (or, as an alternative, a USDA-endorsed export health certificate issued no later than July 31, 2025 that meets specific criteria)? Answering yes puts you on the U.S.-vaccinated pathway.
- If not, does the dog have a current Certification of Foreign Rabies Vaccination and Microchip form, endorsed by an official government veterinarian in the country of departure? This is the foreign-vaccinated pathway, and it also requires a confirmed reservation at a CDC-registered animal care facility before you can complete this part of the form.
From there, you’ll fill in every country the dog has visited in the last 6 months, your state and port of entry, and your carrier/flight number (or license plate for land travel, or vessel name for sea travel). Foreign-vaccinated dogs can only select the specific airport where their animal care facility reservation is located — no other port of entry is available in the form, and the same restriction applies at arrival (the one narrow exception is service animals arriving by sea who meet every entry requirement, including a passing rabies titer).
Section D: Signature
This section is a legal attestation — CDC’s own instructions specifically warn that false statements can carry criminal penalties, so it’s worth reading carefully rather than skimming past it. If you’re the importer, typing your full name here counts as your legal signature. If you’re completing it on someone else’s behalf, type “[your name] on behalf of [importer’s name]” instead, with the date in dd/mm/yyyy format.
Submitting the Form and Getting Your Receipt
After you click Submit, here’s what happens:
- Within a few minutes, you’ll get an email asking you to confirm your email address, sent from
1cdpwebsurvey@cdc.gov— check your spam folder if it doesn’t show up. - Once you confirm, your receipt arrives by email within 15 minutes of your original submission.
- You can show the receipt printed or on your phone — both are accepted.
CDC recommends completing the form well ahead of your travel date rather than waiting until the last minute, since you’re dependent on the email confirmation step going smoothly.
How Long Your Receipt Is Valid
This is one of the bigger differences between the two pathways:
- Rabies-free/low-risk pathway: the receipt is valid for 6 months from your submission date, and covers multiple entries — as long as your country of departure doesn’t change. If you regularly travel between the same two countries, one receipt can cover you for the full 6 months.
- High-risk pathway (either sub-type): the receipt is valid for one entry only. You’ll need a new form and a new receipt for your next trip.
Using Your Receipt
Whichever pathway applies, keep your receipt accessible for two checkpoints: show it to your airline before boarding (if flying), and show it to U.S. Customs and Border Protection when your dog arrives.
Your port of entry also needs to match what’s on the receipt. Rabies-free/low-risk dogs can use any port of entry. U.S.-vaccinated dogs from high-risk countries can also use any port, but it has to be the one listed on the receipt. Foreign-vaccinated dogs from high-risk countries are restricted to the specific airport where their animal care facility reservation is located — there’s no flexibility here.
A Few Situations Worth Knowing About
Frequent travel between the U.S., Canada, and Mexico: if your dog hasn’t been outside those three countries, you only need the standard form, and it’s good for repeat entries for 6 months. But if you switch which country you’re departing from — say, from Canada to Mexico — you’ll need a new form listing the new departure country.
Transiting by land: even if your dog is only in the country briefly while passing through by car, bus, or truck, the same CDC requirements apply. There’s no reduced version of the rules for short transits.
Microchip readability: your dog’s microchip can be any brand, but it has to be readable with a universal scanner. If the microchip number starts with something other than 9, it’s worth confirming with your vet in advance that it’ll scan correctly — for a high-risk-pathway dog, a microchip that can’t be read on arrival can mean the dog is denied entry and returned to its country of departure at your expense.
Related Guide
This form is just one piece of the puzzle. For the full picture — which pathway applies to your dog, USDA’s screwworm/FMD rules, vaccination timing requirements, and what happens on arrival — see Bringing a Dog to the United States.
