Bringing a dog to Colombia: ICA requirements, step by step

ICA (Instituto Colombiano Agropecuario, Colombia’s agricultural and animal-health authority) sets the requirements on its page on bringing dogs and cats into Colombia. For a dog, they are:

• Minimum age: 15 weeks. A younger puppy cannot enter the country.
• An original health certificate, issued or endorsed by the official animal-health authority of the country of origin, with an original or electronic stamp and signature, dated no more than ten calendar days before entry. It describes the dog and states that it is free of infectious and parasitic diseases and fit to travel.
• Internal and external parasite treatment within the 60 days before travel, recorded with the name of the treatment, its active ingredient and the date.
• Current vaccinations against rabies, distemper, canine hepatitis, leptospirosis, parvovirus, coronavirus and parainfluenza, each recorded with its name, batch, date and period of validity. If one of them — other than rabies — is not given in the country of origin, the official veterinary service certifies that.
• Rabies, if it is the dog’s first vaccination: given at least 21 days before the date of embarkation.

ICA’s page does not ask for a microchip to enter, and it does not mention breeds. Your airline may ask for more than ICA does, and so will the country you return to, if you plan to return.

Rules change. Everything on this page was checked against the official pages on October 10, 2026. Before you book, confirm each requirement with ICA, with the veterinary authority of the country you are leaving and with your airline. This is general information, not veterinary or legal advice.

Three things, in addition to the veterinary paperwork in your own country:

1. Register as an ICA user.
2. Request the Certificado de Inspección Sanitaria (CIS, ICA’s health inspection certificate) in SISPAP, ICA’s online system. One request covers up to ten animals of the same species.
3. Pay, and print the request and the proof of payment to carry with you.

The ten-day limit on the health certificate is counted back from the day you enter Colombia, not from the day you see your veterinarian, so it is worth fixing the flight first and working backwards.

According to APHIS’s page on pet travel to Colombia, last modified March 5, 2026, you need a health certificate issued by a USDA-accredited veterinarian and endorsed by APHIS within the 10 days before travel, together with the rabies certificate. APHIS also notes that pet dogs and cats do not need an import permit for Colombia.

From any other country the logic is the same: ICA wants the certificate issued or endorsed by the official authority, not only signed by a private veterinarian. Ask your veterinarian how the official endorsement works where you live, and how long it takes.

You go to the ICA office at the airport, port or border crossing where you arrive, with the dog and the original documents. An ICA officer reviews the papers, inspects the dog and, if everything is satisfactory, issues the Certificado de Inspección Sanitaria.

If you still have to pay at the point of entry, ICA only takes cards: it does not accept cash.

If the inspection is not satisfactory, ICA’s page lists what can follow, always at the owner’s expense: the dog can be held, put in quarantine at home, sent back on the next flight or, in the last resort, put down on health grounds. That is the reason to check the dates on every document twice before you fly.

ICA’s entry page does not mention breeds. Avianca’s pet policy cites Colombia’s Law 746 of 2002, article 108-E, as prohibiting the import of the Staffordshire Terrier, the American Staffordshire Terrier, the American Pit Bull Terrier and their crosses. We did not verify whether that article is still in force after Colombia’s 2016 police code, so if you have one of those dogs, ask the airline and ICA in writing before you plan the move.

Each airline has its own rules, and they can be stricter than ICA’s. We read Avianca’s in full; according to its pet policy, edited July 1, 2026:

• Minimum age: four months on international flights.
• Cabin: up to 10 kg (22 lb) including a soft carrier of 56 × 36 × 25 cm (22 × 14 × 10 in), one pet per passenger.
• Hold: up to 70 kg (154 lb) including the rigid crate. Reservations up to 48 hours before the flight, subject to space.
• Short-nosed breeds do not travel in the hold. Avianca’s list includes the Cavalier King Charles Spaniel, which it carries only in the cabin and with a signed form.

Avianca also closes the hold to pets on some routes in the northern winter: from December 15, 2026 to March 31, 2027, to and from Dallas, Boston, Chicago, Houston, New York, Washington, Toronto and Montreal. If your dog is too big for the cabin, that decides when you can move.

We could not read other airlines’ pages in full, and some restrict pets on routes to and from Colombia, so we do not summarize them here. Check your airline’s own page for your exact route and ask for the conditions in writing.

The return trip is usually harder than the arrival, and some of it can only be done before you leave. Colombia is on the CDC’s list of high-risk countries for dog rabies, so once your dog has been here, the United States treats it as a dog coming from a high-risk country.

If your dog was vaccinated in the United States, the CDC’s rules for U.S.-vaccinated dogs, updated April 28, 2026, ask for the CDC Dog Import Form receipt and a Certification of U.S.-issued Rabies Vaccination, filled in by a USDA-accredited veterinarian and endorsed before the dog leaves the United States. The dog also has to be at least six months old, microchipped and healthy on arrival, and it can enter through any port that matches the one on the receipt. It needs neither a titer nor a reservation at a CDC-registered facility. The same page says that USDA-endorsed export health certificates issued after July 31, 2025 are no longer accepted for re-entry: only that certification is.

If you may go on to the European Union, ICA’s own advice on its entry page is to have the rabies antibody test done before you travel to Colombia.

For a dog that was vaccinated in Colombia, or one you get here, the rules are much heavier. They are in taking a dog from Colombia to the US, Canada or Europe.

No. ICA’s page on moving dogs and cats within the national territory says the Certificado de Inspección Sanitaria is not required for travel inside Colombia. What applies are the conditions of each airline or transport company.

On domestic flights, Avianca’s policy accepts pets older than two months with the vaccinations for their age, with the same cabin and hold limits as above. The rest — carriers, notice, and a bill that could change the minimum age — is in flying with a puppy within Colombia.

This is the part newcomers tend to overlook. Colombia has no seasons to speak of: the climate of a place depends on its altitude and stays much the same all year. Bogotá, at about 2,550 m (8,370 ft), is cool every month. Medellín, at about 1,470 m (4,820 ft), is temperate. Cartagena de Indias, at sea level, is hot and humid all year.

A heavy-coated or short-nosed dog that was comfortable where you lived may find the Caribbean coast hard going, and a move between two Colombian cities can be a bigger change for the dog than the move to Colombia was. The guide to which dog suits your city’s climate in Colombia explains the climate zones, and the city pages give the altitude and climate of each place: Bogotá, Medellín and Cartagena de Indias, among others in Delivery.

If your dog has a heart or breathing condition, talk to your veterinarian about the altitude and the heat before you choose where to live.