Bringing your dog or cat to Canada.

For an adult pet, Canada's requirement comes down to a single piece of paper: a valid rabies vaccination certificate, issued by a licensed veterinarian, proving vaccination within the last 3 years. It must identify your pet and, to avoid trouble at the border, be written in English or French. The certificate should show the vaccination date, the expiry or validity period, and the vaccine product used.

That is essentially the whole entry requirement for a dog over 3 months or a cat over 3 months. There is no health certificate for adult dogs and cats, no quarantine, no blood test, and no waiting period. The authority is the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA), and the check itself is done by a Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA) officer at the crossing.

Age is where Canada adds a little complexity, mostly for dogs. The clean, simple path applies to dogs over 8 months and to any dog or cat over 3 months carrying a rabies certificate. Below those thresholds, the rules branch.

1. Puppies and kittens under 3 months are exempt from the rabies vaccination requirement, but you must be able to prove the animal's age to border officials.
2. Dogs under 8 months traveling with their owner need proof of current rabies vaccination if they are over 3 months, but no health certificate.
3. Dogs under 8 months traveling unaccompanied (shipped without you) must be examined and have a health certificate issued by a licensed vet within 72 hours of arrival in Canada.
4. Cats of any age over 3 months need only the rabies certificate; kittens under 3 months are exempt. Cats never need a health certificate for Canada.

Most US pet owners drive into Canada, and the land crossing is the simplest option: your pet stays in the vehicle, no airline policy applies, and there is no crate-size limit. Keep the rabies certificate with your own travel documents, declare the pet when the CBSA officer asks, and keep the animal calm and restrained. A visibly sick animal can be referred for inspection or refused, so travel with a pet that is in good shape.

Flying is straightforward too, but it hands you the airline's rulebook on top of Canada's. Cabin size limits, cargo booking, and carrier requirements vary by airline, and a pet too large for the cabin travels as cargo at meaningfully higher cost. If you fly, confirm your carrier's pet policy well before you book.

No insurance product reimburses quarantine boarding anywhere, so if you later move on to a destination that requires it, budget that as an out-of-pocket cost. Nationwide is the one US pet insurer that reimburses vet care at any licensed vet worldwide, and even it excludes boarding.

US pet insurance is written around a pet that lives in the US. Most policies carry a policy territory, typically the US and sometimes Canada or Puerto Rico, and even the ones that reimburse vet care worldwide generally require your primary residence to stay in the US. So a policy may well pay a vet bill on a trip abroad and still lapse the day the move becomes permanent. Read your own policy's territory and residency wording before you assume it travels with you, and for a permanent move plan on taking out local pet insurance in your new country.

As a rough sanity check on any quote, and this is our read of current market pricing rather than an official figure: a standard international pet move tends to run about $1,500 to $6,000. Full-service door-to-door typically costs 30 to 50 percent more than a transport-only booking where you handle the vet work and paperwork yourself.

The costs people forget are the small ones. USDA APHIS charges a user fee to endorse an export health certificate, currently $101 where no test verification is needed, $160 for a certificate covering one or two tests, and $206 for three to six tests, with rabies vaccination not counted in that tally. These rates rose on 10 January 2025, the first APHIS fee adjustment since 2012. Add an airline-compliant crate (roughly $50 to $400), the travel vet visits themselves, boarding on a layover, and summer heat surcharges.

Pet shipping attracts scammers, so verify any company before you send money. IPATA, the International Pet and Animal Transportation Association, is a trade association: its members ship under their own company names, IPATA itself does not ship pets, and there is no legitimate shipper with "ipata" in its name. Scammers clone real shippers' sites, logos and testimonials, so check the company in the member directory at ipata.org rather than trusting a logo on a website. Treat these as red flags: a quote dramatically below every other quote, a domain registered less than six months ago, email coming from a gmail address rather than the company domain, and any request to pay by Western Union or MoneyGram.

Canada is recognized as rabies-free, which makes the return leg to the US one of the easiest. A dog coming home needs a CDC Dog Import Form (you complete it online and carry the receipt), a microchip readable by a universal scanner, a minimum age of 6 months, and a healthy appearance on arrival. Because Canada is not high-risk for dog rabies, there is no titer test and no quarantine, and the form receipt can cover multiple entries for up to 6 months as long as your pet stays within the US, Canada, and Mexico.

Cats returning to the US have essentially no federal requirement. For the full detail on the return, see our guide to bringing a dog into the US, and for how Canada stacks up against other destinations on effort and cost, see traveling with a pet.

If you are taking a pet to Canada for a trip rather than moving for good, the expensive surprise is a vet bill abroad. Faye sells travel insurance with an optional pet add-on that covers veterinary fees for a pet travelling with you, plus some kennel costs if your own return is delayed. Be clear on what it is not: it is a travel policy, so it does not cover a permanent relocation, loss or injury during pet shipping, or quarantine fees. Nothing on the market covers mandatory quarantine.

Common questions

Quick answers.

More on Canada

The little money things nobody warns you about.

• Tipping in CanadaUnlike Europe, Canada tips just like the US: 15 to 20% at sit-down restaurants, and staff rely on it. The one thing to watch is the card terminal, which often suggests high amounts and calculates on the after-tax total. Here is what you actually owe.
• Do I need cash in Canada, or can I use cards?Short answer: cards for almost everything, a little cash for markets and parking meters. Canada is nearly as tap-happy as it gets. The things to get right are the pre-tax price tag, the fee-heavy private ATMs, and the dollar prompt.
• Staying connected in Canada.Canada is the one trip on this list where your US plan may already have you covered without paying more, so start there. If it does not, or you want real data, an eSIM is cheaper than a day pass. The thing to plan for is the dead zones on rural highways and in the parks.
• What does renting a car in Canada really cost?Canada is the easy one for US drivers: your license works, and your usual card and insurance most likely cover the car, so the counter's pricey add-ons are often skippable. The costs to watch are the winter-tire rule, a sneaky Ontario toll, and the usual drop and driver fees.
• Taxis, Uber and Lyft in Canada.Rideshare works in Canada's major cities much as it does at home, so getting around town is easy. The money question is the airport run, where a train or a fixed taxi fare often beats a surging Uber. Here is what to use where.