CDC High-Risk Rabies Country List for Dog Importation

The CDC’s high-risk rabies countries for dog importation list covers more than 100 countries and territories where the canine rabies virus variant still circulates. If your dog has spent any time in one of them during the six months before entering the United States, a stricter set of vaccination, titer, documentation, and port-of-entry rules applies under the regulation that took effect August 1, 2024.¹ Countries that don’t appear on the list are not considered high risk.²

The Full List by Region

The CDC updates the list periodically based on global surveillance, so confirm your destination’s status close to your travel date.²

Africa

Algeria, Angola, Benin, Botswana, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Ceuta, Chad, Comoros, Côte d’Ivoire (Ivory Coast), Democratic Republic of the Congo, Djibouti, Egypt, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Eswatini (Swaziland), Ethiopia, Gabon, Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Kenya, Lesotho, Liberia, Libya, Madagascar, Malawi, Mali, Mauritania, Melilla, Morocco (including Western Sahara), Mozambique, Namibia, Niger, Nigeria, Republic of the Congo, Rwanda, São Tomé and Príncipe, Senegal, Sierra Leone, Somalia, South Africa, South Sudan, Sudan, Tanzania (including Zanzibar), Togo, Tunisia, Uganda, Zambia, Zimbabwe.²

Asia and the Pacific

Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Brunei, Cambodia, China (excluding Hong Kong, Macau, and Taiwan), India, Indonesia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Laos, Malaysia, Mongolia, Myanmar (Burma), Nepal, North Korea, Pakistan, Philippines, Russia, Sri Lanka, Tajikistan, Thailand, Timor-Leste, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Vietnam.²

Middle East

Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Iran, Iraq, Israel (including the West Bank and Gaza), Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Oman, Qatar, Syria, Turkey, United Arab Emirates, Yemen.²

The Americas

Belize, Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, Cuba, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala, Guyana, Haiti, Honduras, Peru, Suriname, Venezuela.²

Europe

Belarus, Moldova, Ukraine.²

The Six-Month Lookback

The CDC doesn’t just look at where your dog is flying from. It looks at where your dog has been during the previous six months. A dog living in Germany that spent two weeks in Morocco four months ago is treated as a high-risk import, even though Germany itself is low risk.² This is the detail that catches people off guard.

Dogs that have not set foot in any listed country during that six-month window face a much simpler entry process. Rabies vaccination is still recommended, but the additional documentation, titer testing, and restricted-airport requirements do not apply.²

Which Set of Rules Applies to Your Dog

Once a dog is flagged by the lookback, the next question is where the rabies vaccine was given. A dog vaccinated in the U.S. with a USDA-licensed vaccine before you left follows one path. A dog vaccinated abroad follows a considerably more involved one. Every dog, regardless of category, must be at least six months old, have a scannable microchip implanted before the rabies vaccine was administered, appear healthy on arrival, and have a CDC Dog Import Form receipt shown to the airline before boarding and to Customs and Border Protection on arrival.³

Getting the microchip-then-vaccine order wrong invalidates the vaccination record and everything built on top of it.⁴

Foreign-Vaccinated Dogs from a Listed Country

If your dog was vaccinated against rabies outside the United States and has been in a high-risk country in the past six months, you need a full documentation packet, a reservation at a specific airport, and several weeks of lead time.⁵

Certification of Foreign Rabies Vaccination and Microchip Form

A licensed veterinarian fills out this form with the microchip number and rabies vaccine details (manufacturer, lot number, expiration date, and date given), and an official government veterinarian in the country of departure endorses it. The form cannot be completed more than 30 days before the dog travels to the U.S., and it expires 30 days after the veterinarian signs it.⁵

Dates must be written MM/DD/YYYY, not the day/month/year format common outside the U.S. Using the wrong format is grounds for denial and return at your expense. Sections A through F must be typed; wet signatures are allowed in the veterinarian’s signature block.⁴

Rabies Serology Titer Test

A valid titer from a CDC-approved laboratory proves the dog has developed sufficient antibodies. The blood sample must be drawn at least 30 days after the first valid rabies vaccine and at least 28 days before the dog enters the United States.⁵ Build at least two months of lead time into your planning.

Results must come directly from a CDC-approved lab; results forwarded through a third-party lab are not accepted.⁶ Without a valid titer, the dog can still enter, but it must complete a 28-day quarantine at a CDC-registered animal care facility on arrival, at the importer’s expense.⁷

Vaccine Age and Timing

If this is the dog’s first rabies vaccine, it must be given at or after 12 weeks (84 days) of age and at least 28 days before U.S. arrival. Vaccines given before 12 weeks aren’t accepted for dogs coming out of high-risk countries.⁵

Photo

The CDC Dog Import Form for high-risk country dogs requires a photo showing the dog’s face and body, submitted as .jpg, .jpeg, or .png, under 10 MB. For dogs under one year old, the photo must be taken within 15 days of the expected U.S. arrival date. Any non-English document needs a certified English translation.⁸

US-Vaccinated Dogs Returning Home

If your dog was vaccinated with a USDA-licensed rabies vaccine in the United States before you left, the return trip is considerably easier even after time in a listed country. No titer test. No CDC-registered animal care facility visit. You can enter at any U.S. port of entry, including land borders and any airport.⁹

You need two documents. The CDC Dog Import Form receipt, completed online, valid for a single entry on the listed date. And the Certification of U.S.-Issued Rabies Vaccination form, completed by the USDA-accredited veterinarian who vaccinated the dog (or another accredited vet at the same practice with access to the records) and submitted through the Veterinary Export Health Certification System (VEHCS) for USDA APHIS endorsement before you leave the country.

USDA charges a user fee for endorsement. For a single pet with no lab tests listed on the certificate, the fee is $101.¹⁰ Service dogs belonging to individuals with disabilities as defined by the ADA are exempt from that fee. Once endorsed, the form is valid for multiple re-entries until the underlying rabies vaccination expires.¹¹

If the certification is being issued for the initial rabies vaccine, or for a booster after a lapsed vaccine, the form can’t be completed until at least 28 days after that vaccination.¹¹

The Six Approved Airports

Foreign-vaccinated dogs coming out of a high-risk country can enter the U.S. only by air, only at one of six airports with a CDC-registered animal care facility, and only with a facility reservation booked before departure. No connecting domestic flights are allowed until the dog clears the facility.⁵

Atlanta (ATL): Dandie Scottie Kennel
Los Angeles (LAX): Kennel Club LAX and Rue’s Kennels @ LAX
Miami (MIA): Pet Limo
New York (JFK): The ARK Pet Oasis (JFK specifically, not Newark or LaGuardia)
Philadelphia (PHL): Gateway Animal Care Center
Washington, DC (IAD): Pender Pet Retreat¹²

Land border crossings are not an option for this category of dog.⁷

What Denial Looks Like

At the airport, Customs and Border Protection reviews the CDC Dog Import Form receipt and supporting documents, then directs the dog to the animal care facility. A veterinarian there examines the dog, scans the microchip against the paperwork, and revaccinates against rabies.³

If the microchip can’t be scanned, or the documentation is missing, invalid, or uses the wrong date format, the dog can be denied entry and returned to the country it came from at the owner’s expense. There is no grace period and no fix-it-later option at the border.⁷ A dog with a valid titer and clean paperwork clears the facility quickly; one without a titer stays for the 28-day quarantine, though a shortened stay is sometimes possible through a Prospective Serologic Monitoring assessment that the facility requests from CDC when a healthy personal pet or service dog has documentation of at least two rabies vaccinations given on a U.S.-aligned schedule.

The rules above cover personal pets, service dogs, and working dogs. Dogs brought in for resale, wholesale distribution, or fee-based adoption also need a USDA APHIS Animal Care import permit and additional vaccinations under the Animal Welfare Act, on top of everything CDC requires.¹³

1
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. CDC Updates Dog Importation Regulation
2
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. High-Risk Countries for Dog Rabies
3
eCFR. 42 CFR 71.51 – Dogs and Cats
4
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Instructions for Veterinarians Completing the Certification of Foreign Rabies Vaccination and Microchip Form
5
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Entry Requirements for Foreign-Vaccinated Dogs from High-Risk Countries
6
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Approved Rabies Serology Laboratories for Testing Dogs
7
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Frequently Asked Questions on Dog Importations
8
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. CDC Dog Import Form and Instructions
9
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Entry Requirements for U.S.-Vaccinated Dogs from High-Risk Countries
10
USDA APHIS. Cost To Endorse Your Pet’s Health Certificate
11
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Instructions for USDA-accredited Veterinarians Completing the Certification of U.S.-issued Rabies Vaccination Form
12
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. CDC-registered Animal Care Facilities
13
USDA APHIS. Commercial Dog Import