Pet Shipping from the USA to India

AQCS asks for a declaration that each is a pet, not imported commercially, as a gift or for breeding. A family transferring its residence shows at least two years of stay abroad and proof of the move, such as a visa cancellation. A pet that left India before comes back as a re-import, with the export certificate AQCS issued when it left. Anyone else, a visitor on a short stay included, needs a DGFT license before applying. The directorate’s own answers on bringing in pets, read 28 September 2026, say a short duration import is generally not allowed, and is granted in rare cases on justification for an animal kept for the owner’s medical reasons, such as a therapy or emotional support dog, that leaves India with them again. The same answers, read again October 29, 2026, also require the license for a pet not transported as passenger baggage.

Nothing else travels in the crate: AQCS does not let additional food or bedding come in with the pet. Ready to start? Request a quote.

A dog or cat from three months old needs a rabies vaccination. It is given within the year before embarkation, and not in its final month, and it goes on the official health certificate with every other vaccination. The certificate also states that the pet shows no clinical sign of infectious or contagious disease. AQCS’s baggage page names rabies, canine distemper, parvovirus infection and leptospirosis for a dog, and rabies, distemper, feline enteritis, panleukopenia and leptospirosis for a cat. The APHIS certificates for India, read October 29, 2026, go further. The dog’s adds infectious canine hepatitis, scabies and leishmaniasis, and certifies vaccination against canine distemper, parvovirus infection and leptospirosis as well as rabies. The cat’s adds scabies, Aujeszky’s disease and toxoplasmosis, and says the cat was examined no more than 7 days before shipment, as AQCS’s cat procedure, read the same day, also asks. Each certificate is valid for 30 days after issuance. For the application, AQCS lists a vaccination and microchip record, the official certificate with the annexure it names for the species, 1.1.1 for a dog or 2.1.1 for a cat, signed by the competent authority, the air ticket or airway bill, and a passport copy. A USDA-accredited veterinarian can issue the certificate through VEHCS, and APHIS accepts a digital endorsement; the printed, endorsed copy travels with the pet.

Three documents from India and three from the United States are behind this checklist. India’s Animal Quarantine and Certification Services, AQCS, sets out the three cases, the Advance NOC and what happens on arrival in its page on importing pets under the baggage rule and its standard operating procedures for dogs and cats, all read September 25, 2026. APHIS’s page for pets going from the United States to India, read September 23, 2026, covers the US certificate and its endorsement, and APHIS’s India certificates for dogs and cats are the forms the vet completes.