Canadian Travel and Immigration for Pets

Your Family Pets

If you are bringing your pets with you, you will have to have medical documents showing that the animals are healthy, and follow certain procedures while crossing the border. Please keep in mind, all documents for your animals have to be in English or French.

1 Cats and Dogs

If you are bringing kittens or puppies under 3 months old, you don't have to show medical documents for them. For all cats and dogs older than 3 months, you'll have to prove that they don't have rabies.

If you are coming from a country recognized as rabies-free (that is, a country in which there hasn't been a case of rabies for some time), you have to get a document from a veterinarian who works for a government veterinary service in your country, stating that there has been no cases of rabies in your country for at least 6 months, and that your cats or dogs have been in the country that whole time. Currently, countries recognized by the government of Canada as rabies-free are:

• Antigua
• Australia
• Bahamas
• Barbados
• Bermuda
• Cayman Islands
• Fiji
• Finland
• Iceland
• Ireland (Republic of)
• Jamaica
• Japan
• New Zealand
• Norway
• St. Kitts-Nevis-Anguilla
• St. Lucia
• St. Martin (Netherlands Antilles)
• St. Pierre et Miquelon Islands
• St. Vincent
• Sweden
• Taiwan
• Turks and Caicos Islands
• United Kingdom (England, Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland)
• Uruguay

If you can't obtain this certificate, you have to follow the steps below for people coming from countries not recognized as rabies-free.

If you are coming from any other country, you will have to ask your veterinarian for a document certifying that your cats or dogs have had current rabies vaccinations. If your animals haven't had current vaccinations, you must ask your veterinarian to vaccinate them before coming to Canada.

Your veterinarian must include in the certificate of current vaccination the following information:

• Identification and description of the animal: name, gender, breed, colour, age, weight, etc. (if you have more than one pet, each will need a separate certificate)
• Trade name of the rabies vaccine
• Serial number of the rabies vaccine
• Amount of years for which it's valid (maximum 3 years)