Moving to another country with a dog: what comes first

The flights are booked. The crate is bought, the vet appointment is in the diary, and then somebody mentions a form that had to be signed before the dog left the country. Every step in an international move is doable on its own, and the order is what goes wrong.

Your destination decides what your dog needs, so its authority is the first page you open. The country you are leaving issues some of the proof, and at least one of those documents only counts if a veterinarian completes it before departure. Book the vet before you book the flight.

Who actually decides what your dog needs?

The country you are arriving in. The United States shows how specific that gets. The US Department of Agriculture states on its pet travel page that “The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) is the primary authority for dog imports,” and that this covers dogs entering or returning to the United States.

So the agency whose name ends up on the paperwork belongs to the destination, and the rule it applies turns on the dog’s own history. The CDC states that requirements “depend on where the dog was vaccinated and what countries the dog has been in during the 6 months before entry into the U.S.”

That second clause is the one that catches people. Where a dog has been travels with it, so an earlier posting abroad can move the same animal into a different set of requirements than the ones you were reading last week.

What does your own country have to issue before you leave?

Sometimes the answer is a form that only a US-accredited veterinarian can file, and only while the dog is still in the country. APHIS states that the CDC requires US-vaccinated dogs that have travelled to a high-risk rabies country within the past 6 months to carry a “Certification of U.S.-Issued Rabies Vaccination” form, and that “This form must be submitted by a USDA-accredited veterinarian before the dog leaves the United States.”

The certification is an arrival requirement that has to be satisfied on the way out. It exists so the dog can come home, it names a vaccination given in the United States, and it needs a US-accredited veterinarian to submit it. Its deadline is the departure itself.

APHIS gives the ordering advice plainly on the same page: contact a USDA-accredited veterinarian “as soon as you decide to travel”. That veterinarian helps you determine the destination country’s entry requirements, including any needed vaccinations, tests or treatments, and assists with the USDA-endorsed health certificate.

How do you find the requirements that apply to your dog?

Two of the authorities above publish a free questionnaire for exactly this, and each is run by the authority that sets the requirements it asks about. Which document the answer turns out to be, a pet passport or a health certificate, is its own question: pet passport vs health certificate.

Answer the history questions honestly, including the awkward one about which countries the animal has been in, because that field is what changes the answer. Both agencies state the consequence in plain language. The CFIA warns that without the right paperwork at the border “you risk experiencing delays at the border and your animal may not be allowed into Canada.” The CDC’s tool page is blunter still: if you do not follow its rules, “your dog will be denied entry into the United States and returned to the country of departure at your expense.”

This article deliberately does not list requirements by destination. They are set per country, they get revised, and the authority’s own page is the only version that is current on the day you read it. Everyday gatekeepers such as kennels and groomers ask for a much shorter list, covered in vaccine records for travel and boarding, and the underlying certificate has its own replacement route.

Who is responsible for what at the border?

You are, alongside more than one level of government, each owning a different piece. Canada sets out the division in the Canadian Food Inspection Agency’s guidance for people acquiring a dog: CFIA regulates the importation of animals and its veterinarians enforce the import requirements at the border. The Canada Border Services Agency inspects on CFIA’s behalf and may refuse entry to a non-compliant animal or refer it onward. Provinces and territories take over once the animal is inside the country. Cities and municipalities handle licensing and by-laws.

Then comes the line that names you. Importers, the CFIA states, “must also verify and follow all relevant import requirements before entering or re-entering the country. This includes complying with all federal, provincial/territorial or municipal requirements prior to travelling.”

The agencies at the border are there to inspect what you assembled.

Which person is holding which document?

Name one person per document before anybody flies. An international move often splits the household across two flights: one adult goes ahead for the job, and the other follows weeks later with the animal, the crate and a folder put together by whichever of them happened to be in the country when the vet called.

The gaps show up in the same places. One is the split flight: the adult standing at the check-in desk is the one who never spoke to the veterinarian. The other is everything sitting behind one person’s login. The endorsed certificate arrived as an attachment in an email account nobody else can open, and the microchip registry and the clinic portal want a password that is now on another continent.

Decide out loud, early, who holds each item and where the household copy lives. The domestic half of a move, including the microchip and the licence, is in moving house with a dog, and the filing system underneath all of it is in the guide to pet health records.

Where Dana fits

An international move scatters one animal’s paperwork across two countries and usually more than one adult. Dana keeps the vaccination dates and the clinic’s details on a single health record, with the certificate photos in Records Vault on Dana Pro, so the person at the check-in desk is working from the same file as the person who booked the appointment. Shared care gives every household member you invite as a caregiver their own access to it, with a role that says what they can change, and the Vault passes a copy to a receiving clinic or an agent through a code-gated link that expires on its own.