This is the most common mistake for UK and EU travellers. Your EU Pet Passport is a valid travel document for movement within the EU and to certain third countries — but it is not the CDC Dog Import Form receipt, and US Customs Border Protection wants the CDC receipt specifically. Similarly, the GB Pet Health Certificate issued by an APHA-listed vet for UK dogs is a UK export document, not a CDC form.

Arriving without the CDC Dog Import Form receipt — even with a fully valid EU Pet Passport — means your dog may be treated as if it has no documentation and subjected to the most restrictive procedures available.

A UK-based dog that visited Turkey, Thailand, Morocco, Egypt, India or any other CDC high-risk country in the 6 months before US entry is treated as a high-risk dog — full stop. This means the Certification of Foreign Rabies Vaccination and Microchip form (endorsed by the government vet authority of the high-risk country), a titre test from a CDC-approved laboratory, and entry only through one of the 6 ACF airports applies.

Many owners don't know this rule exists, or assume that because their dog "lives in the UK" it is automatically low-risk. The CDC looks at the travel history, not the home address.

CDC rules are explicit: the microchip must be implanted before the rabies vaccination. If it was done the other way around — which happens at some UK, Irish and continental European practices — the vaccine is invalid in CDC's eyes. The reasoning is straightforward: if the chip wasn't in place when the vaccine was given, there is no way to prove that the vaccinated dog is the same animal being presented at the border.

This is less common in the UK (where microchipping is legally required from 8 weeks) but can still occur if a rescue dog was vaccinated before its chip was verified or updated.

A dog that has just received its first-ever rabies vaccination must wait a full 28 days before entering the US. This applies whether the dog is from a low-risk or high-risk country. A booster (renewal) vaccine that maintains continuous coverage is effective immediately — no 28-day wait needed. But if there was a gap in coverage and the vaccine lapsed, the next injection counts as a first vaccination again and the 28-day wait restarts.

This catches owners who renewed a lapsed vaccine close to their travel date, or who recently adopted a dog whose vaccination history was incomplete.

The CDC does not accept a rabies vaccination given before 12 weeks (84 days) of age. If the manufacturer's licence requires the vaccine to be given at 16 weeks or older, that higher age threshold applies instead. This matters most for dogs imported from countries where early vaccination is common, or for rescue dogs whose paperwork may show an early primary vaccine.

Additionally, all dogs must be at least 6 months old to enter the US at all. But a dog that is 6 months old with a vaccination administered at, say, 10 weeks still has an invalid vaccine — the age rule applies to the date of vaccination, not the date of entry.

If your dog visited a high-risk country and you need a titre test to avoid the 28-day quarantine, the test must be done at a CDC-approved laboratory. The CDC maintains a specific list. Even technically excellent laboratories — university veterinary departments, well-regarded private labs — are invalid if they are not on the CDC's approved list.

For UK-based owners, the Animal and Plant Health Agency (APHA) provides access to approved laboratories, but the specific CDC-approved list must still be checked as it differs from the EU/UK titre test lab lists used for, say, entering Australia or New Zealand. Timing matters too: blood must be drawn at least 30 days after the first valid vaccination, and the result must be available at least 28 days before US entry.

The Certification of Foreign Rabies Vaccination and Microchip form is valid for only 30 days from the date of issue — and it is valid for a single entry only. If you prepared the form well in advance and your travel date slips, or if you make a multi-leg journey that delays US entry past the 30-day window, the form is expired and must be reissued with a fresh government endorsement.

The government endorsement step takes time — in most EU and UK contexts, this means an official veterinarian (OV) must countersign, which may require booking an appointment with your local APHA-listed or national competent authority vet.

If your dog spent time in a high-risk country within the past 6 months, it must enter the US through one of exactly 6 airports with CDC-approved Animal Care Facilities (ACF): JFK (New York), LAX (Los Angeles), ATL (Atlanta), MIA (Miami), IAD (Washington Dulles), and PHL (Philadelphia). Any other airport — including busy hubs like ORD (Chicago), BOS (Boston), or IAH (Houston) — cannot accept these dogs.

This catches UK and EU owners who booked a convenient connecting flight without checking this requirement, or assumed any major US hub would be acceptable.

The CDC requires the microchip number to appear consistently across every document in the package: the CDC Dog Import Form, the Certification of Foreign Rabies Vaccination and Microchip (if applicable), and the titre test result. A single digit error — a transposed number, a typo by a vet, or a number that was copied from an old chip record rather than scanned — invalidates the entire set.

This is more common than it sounds: dogs rechipped after rescue (with both an old and a new chip), or dogs whose chip has migrated slightly and reads differently on different scanners, are particularly vulnerable.