USDA APHIS requirements for pets are narrower than most people expect — and knowing exactly where APHIS’s role starts and stops clears up a lot of confusion about which federal agency actually governs your move.
Current as of 2026: Federal requirements can change. This guide reflects USDA APHIS’s own published pages — always confirm directly, especially country-specific disease status, before you move.
CDC and APHIS Split the Work — They Don’t Overlap
APHIS says this plainly on its own site: “The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) is the primary authority for dog imports.” CDC’s angle is rabies — a human health risk. APHIS’s angle is different: “APHIS Veterinary Services has requirements only if your dog is coming from a country affected by foot-and-mouth disease (FMD) or screwworm” — animal-agriculture disease risk, not human disease risk. If your dog isn’t coming from an FMD- or screwworm-affected country, APHIS likely has no import requirement for it at all. See Rabies Vaccination Requirements for International Pet Travel for the CDC side of the picture.
Import Requirements for Dogs: FMD and Screwworm Only
For dogs from FMD-affected countries, the requirement is about conduct, not paperwork: fur and bedding must be free of excessive dirt, hay, or straw, the dog should be bathed on arrival, and it must be kept separate from all livestock for 5 days.
For dogs from screwworm-affected countries, a certificate is required: signed by an official government veterinarian, confirming the dog was inspected for screwworm within 5 days before shipment and is free of it (or was infested, quarantined, and successfully treated). Mexico gets a specific exception here — authorized clinical (private) veterinarians can issue this certificate instead of requiring a government official.
Check the current country list directly — APHIS maintains its own searchable disease-status tool, since affected-country status changes. A direct check confirmed Mexico is currently affected for both FMD and screwworm, and the list extends well beyond Mexico and Central America — don’t assume this only applies to one region.
Cats: No APHIS Import Requirements at All
APHIS states this directly: it “does not have any animal health requirements related to bringing (importing) a pet cat into the United States from a foreign country.” No exceptions are carved out for any situation. Whatever requirements your cat’s move involves will come from CDC (which also has essentially none for cats) or your destination state, not APHIS.
Export Side: APHIS Endorses, It Doesn’t Set the Rules
If you’re moving a pet out of the US, APHIS’s role changes completely. It doesn’t write the requirements — your destination country does. APHIS’s actual job is procedural: a USDA-accredited veterinarian confirms your pet meets the destination country’s entry requirements, then submits the health certificate through the Veterinary Export Health Certification System (VEHCS) for APHIS to endorse. APHIS itself recommends contacting an accredited vet “as soon as you decide to travel,” since destination-country requirements “can change at any time.”
The Commercial Import Permit (Resale, Rescue, and Adoption-Fee Dogs)
A 2008 Animal Welfare Act amendment created a separate lane for dogs “imported into the United States for resale, whether through retail or wholesale channels or fee-based adoption” — this explicitly includes rescue organizations charging an adoption fee, not just large-scale commercial operations. Requirements include: a minimum age of 6 months at entry, rabies vaccination at least 30 days before entry (with the dog at least 84 days old when vaccinated), a DHLPP vaccination within 12 months of entry, and an English-language health certificate from a licensed vet in the export country. The permit is filed through APHIS eFile, with a minimum 5 business days of processing time. See Importing Rescue Dogs for the full picture on how this classification works.
Related Guides
Rabies Vaccination Requirements for International Pet Travel
Importing Rescue Dogs
Pet Health Certificates for International Travel
Pet Travel Glossary
