Pet Travel Health Certificates in San Diego
Traveling with your pet? We provide USDA-certified health certificates and travel clearance for domestic and international trips.
Start your pet’s travel process here.
What to Expect
Step 1
Please complete the Pet Travel Inquiry Form.
Please complete our Pet Travel Inquiry Form here. This provides us with the essential details about your travel plans and allows our team to determine your pet’s eligibility for travel.
Step 2
Submit Rabies Vaccination Records
Please email copies of your pet’s two most recent rabies vaccination certificates to
travel-intake@abcvets.com
Step 3
Eligibility Review
Once we have received your inquiry form and vaccination records, our team will review your pet’s information and contact you within 2–3 business days regarding travel eligibility and next steps.
Step 4
Travel Specialist & Concierge Service
Once your pet is approved to move forward with the travel process, a dedicated Pet Travel Specialist will be assigned to your pet and provide concierge support throughout the process, helping coordinate required documentation, timelines, appointments, and other travel requirements to help ensure everything is completed correctly and on time.
Pet Health Certificates in San Diego, CA
Travel health certificates are always required for international travel and domestic travel, whether traveling by airplane or car. These certificates can only be issued by USDA-accredited veterinarians, including the skilled doctors at ABC Veterinary Hospital Pacific Beach.
Our veterinarians will give pet health certificates, allowing your pet to travel securely with you. We can help you plan both domestic and foreign trips.
Check Requirements from Home
Prior to your pet’s certification appointment, we recommend visiting the USDA animal certification website to view requirements for states and countries here: https://www.aphis.usda.gov/pet-travel#modal-link-cdc-alert
We also recommend visiting your airline’s website to view a list of their unique requirements.
What Is a Pet Travel Health Certificate?
A pet health certificate is an official document that one of our veterinarians will fill out after examining your pet thoroughly. Our health certificate veterinarians are licensed and USDA-approved. The document will contain specific information about your pet, such as breed, age, microchip, etc. It also verifies that your pet is disease-free and identifies all of your pet’s immunizations.
Why Is a Health Certificate Required?
Pet health certificates are required by U.S. and/or foreign government and customs authorities for many types of domestic and international pet travel. These requirements are established by the destination country, state, or governing authority—not by ABC Veterinary Hospital.
Depending on your destination, government officials may require specific vaccinations, testing, treatments, identification, documentation, and strict timelines before your pet is permitted to travel or enter the destination.
Our Pet Travel Team helps you navigate these requirements, prepare the necessary documentation, and ensure your pet’s health certificate meets the applicable government requirements for travel.
Health Certificates for Dogs and Cats
ABC Veterinary Hospital Pacific Beach veterinarians are USDA-accredited to issue health certificates for pets for both interstate and international travel. If you plan to travel with your pet outside of California or to another country, then you’ll need a USDA-certified certificate of veterinary inspection, also called a health certificate.
This proves to border, customs, and airline officials that your pet meets all their travel requirements and is fit to travel without infecting other pets or people, and also certifies that your pet won’t introduce new diseases or parasites to another state or country.
Obtaining a health certificate can be a lengthy process, and we recommend contacting us as soon as you know your travel plans.
Start the process here.
Pet Travel & Health Certificate FAQs
I’m driving across the United States and won’t be boarding a plane. I don’t need a health certificate, right?
Not necessarily. Pet travel requirements are not limited to air travel. Each state establishes its own animal entry requirements, and these requirements may vary depending on your pet’s species, age, vaccination status, and destination.
Current state-specific requirements can be found through the USDA APHIS Pet Travel website. Depending on your route and destination, you may be required to carry documentation such as proof of rabies vaccination or a Certificate of Veterinary Inspection (CVI/health certificate).
Because requirements can change, we recommend confirming the requirements for your destination before beginning your trip.
Why can’t any veterinarian provide my pet’s health certificate?
Health certificates for certain types of travel must be completed by a USDA-accredited veterinarian. USDA accreditation is a voluntary federal program that requires veterinarians to complete specialized training and maintain accreditation in addition to holding their veterinary license.
This additional training covers areas such as animal disease prevention, interstate and international animal movement, regulatory requirements, and proper completion of official travel documentation.
Our veterinarians maintain USDA accreditation so that we can provide this specialized service to our clients and their pets.
Aren’t health certificates just simple forms?
No. Health certificates can be surprisingly complex, and small details matter.
Depending on the destination, a certificate may require verification of microchip information, vaccination dates, vaccine manufacturers and serial or lot numbers, laboratory testing, treatments, examinations, permits, and other supporting documentation. Requirements may also specify exactly how information and dates must be entered—for example, day/month/year versus month/day/year.
Our Pet Travel Team carefully reviews these details and works to ensure that your pet’s documentation complies with the requirements established by the appropriate U.S. or foreign government authorities.
Even a seemingly minor error—such as an incorrect digit, date, microchip number, or vaccine information—can result in a certificate being rejected or needing to be corrected. For this reason, our team approaches every health certificate as a meticulous process and is highly trained and experienced in managing the many details involved in pet travel.
Start your pet’s travel process here.