Vietnam is the most straightforward long haul route we handle. There is no quarantine for a pet arriving with you, no rabies antibody test, and no permit to apply for in advance. Your pet needs a microchip, a rabies vaccination that is still current on the day you leave, and a health certificate endorsed by APHIS that stays valid for 30 days.
There is one hard limit worth knowing before you plan anything: Vietnam’s quarantine rules allow no more than two animals per traveler for keeping as pets or bringing along on a trip. If your household has three, that changes the shape of the move, and it is much easier to solve at the booking stage.
Different destinations, different routes, different challenges.
Because Vietnam is simple on paper and specific in practice, we build a plan that fits your pet, your household and your move date.
We work from the Vietnamese animal quarantine circular and the USDA export requirements, then turn them into a checklist and a dated timeline you can follow.
We help choose practical routes and travel windows, and confirm how your arrival airport handles animals before anything is booked.
Pet Travel Advisors assigns a move coordinator who keeps the certificate inside its window and prepares you for the border gate check.
Vietnam asks for less than almost anywhere else, so the work is in timing rather than in tests. The rabies vaccination has to be current on the day of export. The certificate is valid for 30 days from the date it is issued to the date of departure, which means it is the last thing prepared, not the first. And the number of animals is capped. Here is what we lock in for every Vietnam move:
To keep everything clear, we break the process into steps:
We check how many animals are moving first, because Vietnam caps a traveler at two.
We map the certificate window against your flight, because it expires 30 days after it is issued.
We keep the microchip and the rabies vaccination in the right order with a USDA accredited veterinarian.
We check the details the border gate checks: the microchip number, the vaccination dates and validity, and the certificate itself.
We help align crate setup and routing with airline handling expectations.
We tell you how the registration at the border gate works and what the quarantine officer will look at.
This is where a general summary of Vietnam goes wrong. For an animal brought in by a traveler, Vietnam’s animal quarantine circular says the owner registers the import quarantine directly at the border gate quarantine agency. There is no permit to apply for from a ministry weeks ahead, which is what many pet shipping pages tell you.
The same article caps the number: no more than two animals for keeping as pets, for household purposes, or for bringing along on a trip. At the border gate the officer checks the exporting country’s quarantine certificate and carries out a clinical examination of the animal. That is the whole arrival process for an accompanied pet.
A pet shipped unaccompanied as cargo is a different procedure with different paperwork. We confirm which one your move falls under before anything is booked, because it changes both the documents and the timeline.
There is no quarantine period for a dog or cat arriving with you. The circular provides for a check at the border gate, not a stay: the officer verifies the quarantine certificate from the exporting country and examines your pet clinically. If both are in order your pet continues with you.
That makes the certificate the whole game. It has to be accurate, current, and inside its validity window on the day you land, because there is no second chance to correct it once you have arrived.
Before scheduling vet steps or flights, we confirm what applies to your pet against the Vietnamese animal quarantine rules and the USDA export requirements, so nothing in your plan rests on an outdated summary.
The sequence is short. Microchip first, so the number on the certificate matches the animal. The rabies vaccination has to be current on the day of export, and the certificate records its date, the vaccine name, the batch number and the end of its validity. Then the examination and the certificate, endorsed by APHIS through VEHCS.
The certificate is valid for 30 days from the date it is issued to the date of departure, so it is prepared last and the flight is booked inside that window. There is no titer, no waiting period and no permit to chase, which is why this route moves faster than almost any other we handle.
| Requirement | Vietnam, from the United States |
|---|---|
| Number of pets | No more than two animals per traveler for keeping as pets, household purposes or accompanying travel |
| Microchip | Required, and the number is recorded on the certificate |
| Rabies vaccination | Must be current at the time of export, with the date, vaccine name, batch number and end of validity recorded |
| Rabies titer test | Not required |
| Rabies status of origin | The animal must come from an area not under rabies quarantine and must not have been exposed to rabies |
| Clinical examination | By the USDA accredited veterinarian, on the date the certificate is issued |
| Health certificate | Issued by a USDA accredited veterinarian and endorsed by APHIS through VEHCS. Valid 30 days from the date of issue to the date of departure |
| Import permit | None in advance. For a pet traveling with you, quarantine registration is made directly at the border gate quarantine agency on arrival |
| Quarantine | None for an accompanied pet. The border gate officer checks the certificate and examines the animal |
| Endorsement fee | No laboratory tests on this route, so the APHIS band is $101 per certificate, whatever the number of pets on it |
| Realistic lead time | About 2 to 4 weeks for a vaccinated pet, set by vet scheduling and the 30 day certificate window rather than by any waiting period |
For what that sequence adds up to, work through our USA to Vietnam pet shipping cost breakdown.
Plan on roughly 2 to 4 weeks for a pet whose rabies vaccination is already current. Most of that is scheduling: a vet appointment for the examination and the certificate, then the APHIS endorsement through VEHCS, which normally comes back in 1 to 3 days. If the rabies vaccination has lapsed, that has to be brought up to date first.
Two things decide the shape of the move rather than the length of it. The cap of two animals per traveler, which a three-pet household has to solve at the booking stage. And whether your pet travels with you or as unaccompanied cargo, because the border gate registration route described above is the one for a pet arriving with you.
Planning the budget? See our breakdown of what pet shipping costs, fee by fee. Moving elsewhere in the region: We also cover Thailand, Singapore and the Philippines.
Price the route on our pet shipping cost calculator, and see our USDA health certificate guide for the endorsement step. If Indonesia is also on the list, our Indonesia page explains why the answer there depends on the island.
No. For a dog or cat arriving with you there is no quarantine period. Vietnam’s animal quarantine circular provides for a check at the border gate rather than a stay: the quarantine officer verifies the health certificate issued by the exporting country and carries out a clinical examination of your pet. If both are in order, your pet leaves the airport with you.
Two. The circular that covers animals brought in by travelers sets a limit of no more than two animals for keeping as pets, for household purposes, or for bringing along on a trip. It is a hard number and it catches out households with three animals, so it is worth settling before flights are booked rather than after.
Not in advance, for a pet traveling with you. The circular says the owner registers the import quarantine directly at the border gate quarantine agency. A great many pet shipping pages tell you to apply to a ministry weeks ahead, and for an accompanied pet that is not what the regulation says. A pet shipped unaccompanied as cargo follows a different procedure, so we confirm which route your move takes before anything is booked.
A microchip, a rabies vaccination that is still current at the time of export, and a health certificate issued by a USDA accredited veterinarian and endorsed by APHIS through VEHCS. The certificate records the microchip number, the vaccination date, the vaccine name and batch, and the end of its validity, and it attests that your pet comes from an area not under rabies quarantine and has not been exposed to rabies. The certificate is valid for 30 days from issue to departure.
No. Vietnam does not require a rabies antibody test for dogs or cats arriving from the United States. What it requires is that the rabies vaccination itself is current when your pet leaves, which is why this route can be arranged in weeks rather than months.
Thirty days, measured from the date it is issued to the date of departure. That is generous compared with the 5 and 10 day windows some destinations use, but it still means the certificate is the last document prepared rather than the first, and a flight moved far enough can push a departure past it.
The government side is the smallest of any route we cover. No laboratory tests are required, so the APHIS endorsement sits in the lowest band at $101 per certificate whatever the number of pets on it, and Vietnam charges no permit fee in advance for an accompanied pet. Your veterinarian charges for the examination and any vaccination. The large numbers are the flight and the crate. Our cost breakdown walks through each line.
We check the household size first, because of the two animal cap, then sequence the microchip, the rabies vaccination and the certificate with a USDA accredited veterinarian so the 30 day window covers your flight, prepare the certificate for APHIS endorsement through VEHCS, arrange the crate and the routing, and brief you on the border gate registration and what the quarantine officer will check. One coordinator owns the file from the first vet visit to arrival.
Last updated 7 September 2026
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