Pet Transport from Brazil to the USA: 2026 Guide

Everything on this page turns on one classification: whether the CDC treats Brazil as high-risk for dog rabies. The register we hold is Canada’s CFIA high-risk list, which names Brazil. That is a Canadian instrument rather than the CDC’s own, and we have not been able to read the CDC list directly, so confirm Brazil’s current status at cdc.gov/importation/dogs before you spend anything.

The second question is where your dog was vaccinated. A dog carrying an unbroken, USDA-endorsed US rabies vaccination is on a much shorter route. A dog vaccinated in Brazil, which is the usual case, is on the foreign-vaccination pathway, and that pathway has two branches.

Branch one is the titre. Your vet draws blood for a rabies serology test at a CDC-approved laboratory, at least 30 days after the rabies vaccination and at least 28 days before the dog arrives in the US. Both gaps have to be satisfied. With a valid titre the dog still lands at a facility airport and is still processed at the facility, but it is examined and released the same day.

Branch two is the facility stay. Without a valid titre the dog is held at the CDC-registered facility for 28 days on arrival, at your expense, and cannot be collected early. Most owners are better off doing the titre, which costs a fraction of 28 days of boarding, but it has to be started months ahead.

Two conditions apply on both branches and neither can be fixed at the airport. The dog must be at least six months old at entry. And the microchip must have been implanted before the rabies vaccination, or the CDC treats that vaccination, and with it the titre and the certification form, as invalid.

Where you land is not open either. Seven CDC-registered facilities operate across six airports: Atlanta, Los Angeles (two), Miami, New York JFK, Philadelphia and Washington Dulles. Chicago O’Hare is not among them. The dog must arrive at the airport where its own reserved facility sits, and no onward domestic flight is allowed until the facility releases it. The list changes, so check it at cdc.gov against your routing before booking.

Cats are not subject to the CDC high-risk country rules. Wherever a cat was vaccinated, a cat from Brazil enters the US with no federal CDC or USDA requirement: no facility reservation, no titre, no quarantine.

Federal is not the whole story, though. Individual states set their own rules, and Hawaii runs a quarantine scheme of its own for every cat and dog entering the state whatever its origin, with pre-arrival steps that take months to complete. If you are moving to Hawaii, or to any state you have not checked, start with that state’s agriculture department before you book anything.

Airlines ask for their own paperwork too. A cat travelling as cargo will need a health certificate, and the MAPA-endorsed certificate from your Brazilian vet satisfies that. This is airline policy, not a US entry requirement.

LATAM Airlines operates direct cargo services from Sao Paulo Guarulhos (GRU) to Miami, New York JFK, and other US gateways. Miami matters here for a specific reason: it is one of the six airports with a CDC-registered animal care facility, so a GRU to MIA booking lands the dog somewhere it can actually be processed.

American Airlines also flies GRU to Miami and to Dallas, and United connects GRU through its US hubs. Dallas is not one of the six facility airports. Check the arrival airport, not just the carrier: for a foreign-vaccinated dog the routing has to end at Atlanta, Los Angeles, Miami, New York JFK, Philadelphia or Washington Dulles, with no domestic connection before the facility releases the dog. For pets from other Brazilian cities, a domestic leg to GRU usually comes first.