Bringing your dog or cat to Colombia. In order, because order is everything.

Bringing a pet to Colombia is mostly a timing exercise. The individual steps are ordinary vet stuff. The trap is that several of them have to happen within specific windows before you fly, in a specific sequence, and if you start the chain too late you don't get a do-over without moving your flight. So the most valuable thing here is the order, not the trivia.

Important caveat up front: pet import rules change, they differ for dogs versus cats and can differ by where you're flying from, and the airline adds its own layer of rules on top of the country's. So treat the steps below as the shape of the process. Confirm your animal's exact requirements with a cross-border vet and the authorities before you commit to dates.

The process, in the order it must happen

• 1. Register with ICA and get the current checklist. Colombia's authority is the ICA. Register and request the sanitary inspection certificate (CIS) through its SISPAP portal before you travel, and pull the live checklist for your species and origin country, because this is exactly what drifts. Minimum age to enter is 15 weeks.
• 2. Vaccinations, especially rabies, on schedule. Rabies must be given at least 21 days before you fly and still be valid on the travel date. No valid rabies vaccination, no entry. Dogs also need the core combination (distemper, hepatitis, leptospirosis, parvovirus), and deworming should be done within 60 days of travel.
• 3. Microchip. A microchip is not strictly required by ICA to enter, but it is strongly recommended (and needed for onward EU or UK travel). Use an ISO 11784/11785 15-digit chip; US chips almost always comply.
• 4. The veterinary health certificate, close to departure. A licensed vet examines the animal and issues the health certificate within the 10 days before your pet enters Colombia. Issued too early, it expires; too late, you miss it.
• 5. Official endorsement of the certificate. The certificate must be endorsed by your country's official veterinary authority before it is valid for travel: in the US that is USDA APHIS, in Canada the CFIA, in the UK the APHA. Allow several business days, more in peak season.
• 6. Airline approval and crate rules. Airline pet policies vary sharply, and this is where people get caught. Some carriers allow small cats and dogs in the cabin under a combined weight limit (often around 10 kg); at least one major US carrier does not allow in-cabin pets to or from Colombia at all, only cargo. Confirm cabin versus hold, the weight limit, and the crate standard with your specific airline before you book.
• 7. Arrival and inspection in Colombia. On arrival, ICA inspects every pet: a documentary check (your CIS request and payment, the original health certificate, vaccination records) and a physical check, then issues the CIS. If something fails, ICA can order retention, home quarantine, or return, all at your cost. Pay on arrival by card, not cash.

The timing trap

Read the order above as a countdown, not a to-do list. Vaccinations have to be old enough but still valid. The health certificate has to be fresh, often issued only days before you fly. The endorsement has to fit between the certificate and the flight. That's a narrow window with three things stacked in it, which is why people who start "a couple weeks out" sometimes can't make it work. Start early, then let the late steps happen on schedule.

The honesty beat

Here's the real downside: the flight itself can be hard on an animal, especially one traveling in the hold, and not every pet is a good candidate for a long international trip. Older animals, brachycephalic (flat-faced) breeds, and very anxious pets carry genuine risk, and some airlines restrict them for that reason. This is a real conversation to have honestly with your vet, not a logistics detail to optimize. Sometimes the kind answer is a different plan.

What to actually do next

Get the current, animal-specific requirement list confirmed, then map it backward from your flight date so the windows line up. The planning plan slots the pet timeline against your move so the certificate and endorsement land in the right week instead of the wrong one.

General orientation, not veterinary or import advice. Pet import requirements for Colombia change, differ by species and origin country, and stack with airline-specific rules. Confirm your animal’s exact requirements and timing with a qualified cross-border veterinarian and the relevant authorities before booking travel.