Entry Rules
Colombia is one of the easier countries to move a pet into, and one of the harder ones to move a pet back out of. The way in is a short list: a rabies shot, a health certificate the USDA signs off on, and a registration you do online before you fly. The catch is on the way home. The US treats Colombia as a high-risk rabies country, so the smart move is to set up the return before you ever leave, while your vet and the USDA are still within reach.
In this guide
To bring a dog or cat into Colombia from the US, you need a current rabies vaccination, an international health certificate completed by a USDA-accredited veterinarian and endorsed by USDA APHIS within 10 days of travel, and an ICA registration you complete online before departure. There is no import permit for pet dogs and cats, and there is no routine quarantine if your papers are in order. Most people can prepare the whole thing in two to three weeks.
The part that trips owners up is not getting into Colombia, it is getting back into the United States. The CDC lists Colombia as a high-risk country for dog rabies, which means a returning dog needs more than a health certificate. If your dog is vaccinated in the US, the single most important step happens before you leave: microchip first, rabies shot after the chip, then a Certification of U.S.-issued Rabies Vaccination form endorsed by the USDA. That form cannot be issued once you and the dog are abroad.
Set up the return before you fly out. Because Colombia is high-risk for dog rabies, the easy re-entry path only exists if your dog was microchipped, then vaccinated, then given a USDA-endorsed rabies form while still in the US. Skip that and a dog vaccinated abroad faces a rabies blood test or a facility quarantine to come home. Cats are exempt from the CDC dog rules and are far simpler both ways.
Colombia's animal health authority, the Instituto Colombiano Agropecuario (ICA), sets the entry rules, and for dogs and cats from the US they are clear. Here is the full checklist in one place.
| Requirement | Detail |
|---|---|
| Species | Pet dogs and cats, no import permit needed |
| Rabies vaccination | Current and not expired. A first shot must be given at least 21 days before travel |
| Other vaccines | Recorded on the health certificate (see the vaccine section below) |
| Parasite treatment | Internal and external, within 60 days of travel, noted on the certificate |
| Health certificate | USDA-accredited vet, endorsed by USDA APHIS within 10 days of travel |
| ICA registration | Completed online before the flight, generates the arrival inspection |
| Microchip | Not required by ICA, but strongly recommended and effectively required to bring a dog back to the US |
| Minimum age | About 15 weeks in practice, driven by the rabies timing |
| Quarantine | None for compliant pets |
Chip the dog before the rabies shot. ICA does not demand a microchip, but the US does when your dog comes home, and the rabies vaccine only counts if it was given after the chip went in. If you are chipping anyway, do it first. Getting the order wrong is one of the most common reasons a return trip falls apart.
Rabies is the vaccine that matters for entry, but ICA's certificate asks for a fuller record than most countries, and every vaccine listed needs its name, batch number, date given, and expiry recorded. Your vet handles this at the health certificate appointment.
Most pets that are current on their annual shots already have everything except one line, and that line is the one that catches Americans out.
The canine coronavirus line. ICA lists a canine coronavirus vaccine that US veterinarians simply do not give, so it will never be on an American dog's record. This is not a wall. Ask your USDA-accredited vet to write a short signed statement that the vaccine is not commercially available in the United States. Bring that letter with your documents and ICA accepts the entry without quarantine. Get it in writing before you leave, not as an argument at the airport counter.
This is the document with the tightest deadline and the one people underestimate. It is not something your vet can hand you on the way out the door. It has two stages, a veterinary stage and a federal stage, and the clock on both is 10 days before travel.
Colombia asks you to tell ICA your pet is coming before you board, through its online import portal. The system is where you request the arrival inspection and, once your pet clears it, where the Sanitary Inspection Certificate (Certificado de Inspección Sanitaria) is issued. This step is easy to overlook and expensive to skip.
A few practical notes on how it works: you file a separate request for each species, so a dog and a cat traveling together need two requests, while several pets of the same species can go on one. Do it a couple of weeks out, not the night before, so a system error does not become an airport problem.
Skipping ICA registration triggers quarantine. Arriving without the online registration does not get your pet turned away, but it does put you into a home-quarantine process with two ICA follow-up visits, running well over a hundred dollars and a lot of hassle. Two to three weeks of preparation avoids the whole thing.
A straightforward cabin trip from the US usually lands somewhere between $250 and $600 once you add up the vet, the endorsement, the airline, and the arrival fee. Cargo and professional relocation push it much higher. Here is a realistic breakdown.
| Item | Typical cost | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Vet exam and health certificate | $100 to $300 | Varies by clinic and how many pets |
| USDA APHIS endorsement | About $38 | Per certificate, no extra testing required |
| Airline, in cabin | $95 to $200 each way | Small dog or cat under the seat |
| Airline, in cargo | $200 to $500+ | Larger dogs, IATA-approved crate |
| ICA arrival inspection | $15 to $30 | Payable at the airport, card usually preferred |
| Rabies titer test | $150 to $300 | Only if the return trip needs it, see below |
| Pet relocation company | $1,000+ | Optional, handles paperwork end to end |
The endorsement and the arrival fee are small and fixed. The airline is where the number really moves, and it swings on one thing: whether your pet fits in the cabin or has to fly cargo.
Several carriers serve the US to Colombia route with pets, and the right one depends mostly on your pet's size. Small dogs and cats have plenty of cabin options. A large dog narrows the field fast, because it needs an airline with a live-animal cargo program.
Whichever airline you pick, cabin spots are capped per flight and go first come, so reserve the pet when you book rather than assuming a seat is open. Call to confirm the current policy, since airline pet rules change more often than country rules do.
This is the section worth reading twice, because it is where a well-planned trip goes wrong. The United States has been free of dog rabies since 2007 and guards that hard. The CDC classifies Colombia as a high-risk country for dog rabies, so a dog coming from Colombia does not use the simple low-risk path that applies to somewhere like Canada or most of Europe.
Every dog entering the US, from anywhere, must be at least six months old, appear healthy, carry a microchip readable by a universal scanner, and travel with a CDC Dog Import Form receipt. On top of that baseline, the high-risk rules split by where your dog was vaccinated.
| Situation | What the dog needs to re-enter the US |
|---|---|
| Dog vaccinated in the US | A Certification of U.S.-issued Rabies Vaccination form, completed by a USDA-accredited vet and USDA-endorsed before you leave the US, plus the CDC Dog Import Form, microchip, six-month age, and healthy appearance. Enters at any US port. |
| Dog vaccinated in Colombia | A Certification of Foreign Rabies Vaccination and Microchip form endorsed by a Colombian government vet, plus a valid rabies titer test from a CDC-approved lab, plus the CDC Dog Import Form and baseline requirements. |
| No valid rabies titer | A reservation at a CDC-registered Animal Care Facility for a 28-day quarantine and revaccination, at one of six airports: JFK, LAX, MIA, SFO, ATL, or IAD. Runs into the thousands. |
| Cats | No CDC dog rules apply. A health certificate and the airline's own rules are all that come into play. |
The lesson is simple. If your dog lives in the US and is just visiting Colombia, do the US-side rabies certification before you fly out, and the return is easy. That form is issued in the US by a US vet and endorsed by the USDA, and it cannot be created after your dog has left the country. Miss it, and a dog that was vaccinated in the US can end up treated like a foreign-vaccinated dog, which means a blood test with a 28-day waiting period or a facility quarantine.
The titer test has a built-in wait. If you do need the rabies titer, the blood draw has to happen at least 30 days after the rabies shot and the sample must clear at least 28 days before entry, so it is not something you arrange in the final week. This is the whole reason to handle the US-issued certification up front and never touch the titer path at all.
Pets fly into Colombia mainly through El Dorado in Bogota and José María Córdova in Medellin, both of which have an ICA office in the arrivals area. The process is quick when your paperwork is clean.
Plan for 15 to 30 minutes. Smaller airports may not have full-time ICA staff, so if you are routing through anywhere other than Bogota or Medellin, coordinate with ICA in advance rather than assuming someone will be at the desk.
Colombian law bans the import of several dog breeds outright under the national coexistence code. The prohibited list centers on pit-bull-type dogs: the Pit Bull Terrier, American Pit Bull Terrier, Staffordshire Terrier, American Staffordshire Terrier, and Bull Terrier, along with crosses and hybrids of these breeds. Some carriers and shippers also flag Mastiffs and Rottweilers as restricted, so if you own any powerful or bully-type breed, confirm its status with ICA directly before you book a single thing.
Trained service dogs of otherwise restricted breeds may be able to enter under separate documentation, but that is a case to clear with ICA ahead of travel, not at the gate.
For a dog or cat entering Colombia from the US you need three core documents: a current rabies vaccination certificate, an international health certificate issued by a USDA-accredited veterinarian and endorsed by USDA APHIS within 10 days of travel, and proof that you registered the pet with Colombia's ICA before the flight. No import permit is required for pet dogs and cats. Keep the originals plus a photocopy, since the ICA inspector checks them on arrival.
Yes. Colombia accepts a health certificate for dogs and cats only if a USDA-accredited veterinarian fills it out and USDA APHIS endorses it within 10 days of travel. Your regular vet examines the pet, records the vaccines and parasite treatments, and completes the certificate, then you submit it to APHIS for endorsement, usually through the online VEHCS system. The certificate does not need a notary or a Colombian consulate stamp.
No, not if your paperwork is complete. Colombia does not impose a routine quarantine on dogs and cats that arrive with a valid rabies vaccination, an endorsed health certificate, and ICA registration. The quarantine risk only appears when documents are missing or incomplete, in which case ICA can order a home quarantine with two follow-up visits at your expense. Getting the ICA registration and the coronavirus-vaccine waiver letter right in advance is what keeps you out of that lane.
Budget roughly $250 to $600 for a straightforward cabin trip from the US. That covers the vet exam and health certificate at about $100 to $300, the USDA APHIS endorsement of around $38, an airline cabin fee of about $95 to $200 each way, and the ICA arrival inspection of roughly $15 to $30. A larger dog that must fly in cargo runs higher, often $200 to $500 or more for the airline alone, and using a pet relocation company adds well over a thousand dollars.
Yes, but plan it before you leave, because the CDC treats Colombia as a high-risk country for dog rabies. The simplest path is a US-vaccinated dog: microchip it first, vaccinate against rabies after the chip, and get a Certification of U.S.-issued Rabies Vaccination form endorsed by USDA before you depart, since it cannot be issued once you are abroad. With that plus a CDC Dog Import Form, a microchip, an age of at least six months, and a healthy appearance, the dog re-enters at any US port. Dogs vaccinated in Colombia need a rabies titer test or face a facility quarantine. Cats have no CDC import form requirement.
Avianca is the natural choice as Colombia's flag carrier, with both cabin and cargo options, and LATAM, Copa, American, United, and Delta also carry pets to Colombia on many routes. Each sets its own carrier size, weight limit, and fee, and cabin spots are capped per flight, so you reserve when you book. JetBlue is the notable exception: it does not fly pets to or from Colombia at all, though trained service dogs are allowed.
Information on this page reflects the rules for pet travel to Colombia as of July 2026. Entry requirements are set by Colombia's ICA and USDA APHIS, and the rules for bringing a dog back are set by the CDC, all of which change over time. Colombia is also within a region affected by New World screwworm, which can add APHIS conditions for dogs entering the US, so confirm current requirements with ICA, USDA APHIS, the CDC, and your airline before you travel.
Getting into Colombia is about documents. Getting your pet on the plane is about the airline, and cabin size, weight limits, and cargo options vary a lot between them. Compare who will take your pet on your route before you commit to dates.
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