Caribbean Cruising with PetsEntry rules for cats & dogs arriving by boat

Leeward Antilles

Aruba

Import permit neededRabies vaccine neededVet certificate within 2 weeks of arrival

Before you sail

  • Import permit
  • Rabies vaccine between 1 year and 30 days before arrival; at least 3 months old when vaccinated
  • Veterinary health certificate issued within 2 weeks of arrival
  • Microchip

Not documented Rabies titer test · Quarantine

Fees

Permit

Not published. Neither the Government of Aruba sanitary-measures page nor the Customs pets page names a charge for permission to import a dog or cat, and no Aruban fee schedule for it was located. Read that as "no amount is published", NOT as "nothing is charged" — they are different findings and only one of them is safe to budget on.confidence: Unknown. Not located in any source yet.

Inspection

Not published. Neither the Government of Aruba page nor Customs names an inspection charge, and no fee schedule was located.confidence: Unknown. Not located in any source yet.

WHAT WAS SEARCHED. Both official pages were read end to end. The Government of Aruba page sets out the residence, health-certificate, rabies and chip conditions and names no sum of money anywhere on it. The Customs page states that "Before traveling to Aruba, you must have permission from the Aruba Veterinary Service to import your pet(s)" — so there IS a permission to obtain — but prices it nowhere; the tariff instruments listed in its legislation sidebar are the island's general Landsverordening Tarief van Invoerrechten, which is the ordinary import-duty tariff and not a pet charge. Figures circulated by commercial pet-travel sites are not sourced to either page and are deliberately not reproduced here.[12]

Timeline

  1. 1 year – 30 days before arrivalRabies vaccine given in this window
  2. 2 weeks – arrivalVeterinary health certificate issued in this window
  3. ArrivalPresent the permit and certificate; clear the animal before going ashore.

On arrival & aboard

Customs inspection
On arrivalconfidence: Inferred. Backed by an official source but not yet certified by a human reviewer.[2]
At the dock
Permission from the Aruba Veterinary Service must already be in hand before travelling — "Before traveling to Aruba, you must have permission from the Aruba Veterinary Service to import your pet(s)." The health certificate and rabies proof are then presented on arrival at the Departamento di Aduana. Nothing states whether a yacht clearing in at Oranjestad or Barcadera meets Customs and the Veterinary Service the same way an air passenger does, and no approved port of entry for animals is published.
Confinement
Nothing published addresses an animal aboard a vessel — not whether it may be kept below, not whether it must be crated, and not what a boat lying off Oranjestad or Barcadera is expected to do with it. Both official pages were read end to end for this migration and neither contains the word vessel, boat, yacht, ship, aboard, ashore, leash, muzzle, crate, kennel, confine, marina, anchor or harbour at all: the Government of Aruba page is a list of US-residency, health-certificate, rabies and microchip conditions, and the Customs page is about prior permission, prohibited origins and CITES. Read that as "no rule is published", NOT as "an animal aboard is unregulated".confidence: Unknown. Not located in any source yet.[12]
Stay aboard
Not yet documentedconfidence: Unknown. Not located in any source yet.
Going ashore
Not yet documentedconfidence: Unknown. Not located in any source yet.
By yacht
There is no yacht-specific procedure to follow, so make one: agree the arrival procedure with the Veterinary Service (vetservice@dvg.aw, fax +297 585 1828) before departure and carry the reply, since permission must already be in hand when you sail. As the arrival section records, no approved port of entry for animals and no animal-clearance berth are published either, which is the same silence seen from the dock rather than a second finding.

Quarantine

Quarantine
Not yet documentedconfidence: Unknown. Not located in any source yet.
If your papers are not in order

Neither official page mentions quarantine, in either direction. That is an absence of documentation, not a documented exemption — do not read it as a guarantee that no animal is ever held.confidence: Unknown. Not located in any source yet.

Open questions

High priority

  1. HIGH PRIORITY — does the six-month US-residency condition apply to an animal arriving from anywhere other than the United States? The Government of Aruba text that carries it is introduced as the conditions under which "Aruba allows import from dogs and cats from the USA", and its stated purpose is to stop animals from the prohibited countries entering via the USA. Nothing says whether an equivalent residency test is applied to a yacht arriving from, say, Grenada, Trinidad or Sint Maarten. If it is applied generally it excludes essentially every cruising boat, since a boat under way is resident nowhere. This file does not assert it either way. Ask the Head of the Veterinary Service directly and get the answer in writing.
  2. HIGH PRIORITY — the natural approach to Aruba is from a prohibited origin. Customs prohibits import from South and Central America, Haiti, the Dominican Republic and Cuba, so a boat arriving from Colombia or Venezuela is prohibited on its face. The only stated route through is the household-effects exception with a statement of no objection from the Veterinary Service. Establish exactly what "part of household effects" means for a cruising yacht, whether it is available to a visiting boat at all or only to someone relocating to Aruba, and what evidence the Veterinary Service wants. Do this before departing the mainland, not on arrival.

Also open

  1. Clarify what counts as the country of origin for a boat: the last port cleared out of, every country visited during some look-back window, or where the animal is documented as resident. The prohibited-origin list and the US-residency rule pull in different directions on this, and it determines whether a stop in Cartagena taints a later arrival.
  2. Confirm the status of Curaçao and Bonaire, the two obvious neighbours. Neither appears in the Customs country list, which names only the prohibited group, the United States, the Netherlands, and "other countries". Bonaire is a Dutch public body but is not "The Netherlands", and Curaçao is a separate constituent country. An ABC-island hop is the most likely short passage into Aruba and its treatment is undocumented.
  3. Confirm the permit procedure and turnaround for dogs and cats specifically. The 48-hour weekday decision quoted here appears in the Customs paragraph about species other than dogs and cats. No application form, permit validity period or fee is published on either page.
  4. No breed restrictions appear on either official page. Absence of a statement is not an exemption; confirm with the Veterinary Service before assuming any breed is admissible.
  5. Quarantine is not mentioned by either page, in either direction. Confirm whether any holding or observation can be imposed, particularly on a case-by-case approval for an otherwise prohibited origin.
  6. Establish the arrival procedure for a yacht. Both pages are written for arriving air passengers; no port of entry for animals, inspection point or after-hours arrangement is published.
  7. Neither page shows a date to a reader, but the Government of Aruba page carries structured metadata giving datePublished and dateModified of 2023-11-30, so the text is at least that old and appears not to have been touched since. It still links to an aphis.usda.gov URL in the retired shtml format, which points the same way. The Customs page shows nothing beyond a 2018 copyright footer. Confirm currency with the Veterinary Service.
  8. Confirm whether a microchip is required for an animal arriving from outside the United States. The chip requirement appears only in the US-scoped text; the Customs page never mentions microchipping. This file records it as required on the cautious reading, which may be stricter than what Aruba would actually ask of a yacht.
  9. The Customs site carries a Quarantaineverordening PDF in its Dutch navigation, well outside the pets content. Nothing links it to dogs and cats, and it is not cited here, but it should be read before concluding that no holding power exists — particularly for an animal admitted case-by-case from an otherwise prohibited origin.
  10. Nothing addresses an animal that stays aboard and never lands, so no transit section is authored here.

Page status

Leeward Antilles · Constituent country of the Kingdom of the NetherlandsDataset status Inferredconfidence: Inferred. Backed by an official source but not yet certified by a human reviewer.Last checked 2026-08-12 Recently checkedfreshness: Recently checked. Sources were last re-read 61 days ago, well inside the 180-day window. Recent is not reviewed — this page is still an unreviewed draft.

Evidence

Import permit

Permit
Requiredconfidence: Inferred. Backed by an official source but not yet certified by a human reviewer.[2]
Apply ahead
NOT DOCUMENTED FOR DOGS AND CATS. The Customs page says "The person concerned will receive a decision within 48 hours (weekdays). The decision depends on the animal species and the country of origin." — but that sentence sits inside the paragraph beginning "For the import and export of all other species", meaning species other than dogs and cats. No turnaround is published for a dog or cat application. Note also that 48 weekday hours is not two calendar days: a Thursday application may not be decided until Monday. Do not plan a departure around this figure.confidence: Unknown. Not located in any source yet.[2]

Rabies

Vaccination
Requiredconfidence: Inferred. Backed by an official source but not yet certified by a human reviewer.[21]
Min. age at vaccination
90 days (Animals under three months old at the date of import do not need the vaccination; instead the issuing veterinarian must add a handwritten statement to the certificate reading "Too young for rabies vaccination". Stated in the US-scoped text.)confidence: Inferred. Backed by an official source but not yet certified by a human reviewer.[1]
Min. before travel
30 days (Administered at least one month before the date of import in Aruba. Stated in the US-scoped text; the Customs page requires "valid proof of vaccination against rabies" without specifying an interval.)confidence: Inferred. Backed by an official source but not yet certified by a human reviewer.[1]
Max. before travel
365 days (Administered not more than one year before the date of import in Aruba. Stated in the US-scoped text.)confidence: Inferred. Backed by an official source but not yet certified by a human reviewer.[1]
Boosters, and what the certificate must show

ALL OF THIS IS STATED IN THE US-SCOPED TEXT, and nothing equivalent is published for any other origin. The written proof must state the date of administration, the name, lot number and expiration date of the vaccine used, the animal's description and chip number, and the name, address, phone number and signature of the vaccinating veterinarian if that is not the veterinarian who issued the health certificate. The rabies data may be entered into the health certificate itself. On that same US route the proof must also carry a statement that the animal "has resided in the USA continuously during the 6 months prior to the date of export to Aruba", or, if it is younger than six months, "has resided in the USA continuously since birth" — the residency condition whose general applicability is the first outstanding question below. Note the shape of the one-month/one-year window: a vaccination given more than a year before arrival is outside it regardless of how long the product is licensed for, so a three-year vaccine given two years ago does not obviously satisfy it — but the page does not address multi-year vaccines, so confirm rather than assume.confidence: Inferred. Backed by an official source but not yet certified by a human reviewer.[1]

Veterinary health certificate

Certificate
Requiredconfidence: Inferred. Backed by an official source but not yet certified by a human reviewer.[21]
Completed within
14 days (Not older than two weeks at the date of import. Both official pages state the two-week window, and the Customs page states it without restricting it to any country of origin.)confidence: Inferred. Backed by an official source but not yet certified by a human reviewer.[21]
Form
For arrivals from the United States: the original USDA health certificate form, issued and signed by a licensed, USDA-accredited veterinarian. No form is named for arrivals from anywhere else.
What the certificate must say

"For dogs (canines), and cats (felines), you must submit a health certificate (not older than 2 weeks) and a valid proof of vaccination against rabies upon arrival in Aruba at the Departamento di Aduana." (Departamento di Aduana) The Government of Aruba page adds, for arrivals from the United States, that the certificate must be an "Original document as used by USDA", "Not older than 2 weeks at date of import" and "Issued and signed by a licensed and (USDA) accredited veterinarian", and must state the name, initials, address and phone number of the owner and of the issuing veterinarian, a description of the animal (species, race, sex, age, colour and external signs) and the chip or transponder number.confidence: Inferred. Backed by an official source but not yet certified by a human reviewer.[21]

Identification

Microchip
Requiredconfidence: Inferred. Backed by an official source but not yet certified by a human reviewer.[1]
Standard
AVID or ISO. "Chips or transponders, other than AVID or ISO are permitted, provided that the owner carries the appropriate reader in order to allow veterinarians or customs authorities to verify that issued pertain to the animal at hand."confidence: Inferred. Backed by an official source but not yet certified by a human reviewer.[1]

ONLY DOCUMENTED FOR THE US ROUTE — read "Required" above with that caveat. The microchip requirement and the AVID/ISO wording appear solely in the Government of Aruba text written for arrivals from the United States, where the chip number is a mandatory field on both the health certificate and the rabies proof. The Customs page does not mention microchipping anywhere at all. No source suggests a chip is optional from any origin, and arriving without one would be an unnecessary risk, so this file records it as required — but that is a cautious reading, not a published rule for a yacht arriving from outside the United States.[12]

Animals & vaccinations

Dogs

Min. age
No minimum import age is published. Animals under three months old are exempt from rabies vaccination on the US route, but that is a vaccination exemption, not a statement that a younger animal may be imported.confidence: Unknown. Not located in any source yet.

Cats

Min. age
No minimum import age is published. Animals under three months old are exempt from rabies vaccination on the US route, but that is a vaccination exemption, not a statement that a younger animal may be imported.confidence: Unknown. Not located in any source yet.

Other health requirements

Note
THE TWO PAGES STATE THE PROHIBITION AT DIFFERENT WIDTHS. The Customs prose sentence names South and Central America only; its numbered list adds Haiti, the Dominican Republic and Cuba, and states the exception in the shorter form ("approval required by the Veterinary Service") rather than as a statement of no objection. So those three countries are prohibited by the list rather than by the prose sentence, and the items above follow the list because the Government of Aruba page names the same wider set. The stated purpose of the USA residence rule is given on that page: "Application of the above mentioned legal requirements aims to prevent the import of dogs or cats from countries that are not allowed to export to Aruba ... via the USA" — which is why a boat that spent a season in Colombia and then cleared through Florida is the case the rule was written for. For a yacht arriving from anywhere other than the USA or the Netherlands the Veterinary Service simply decides; email vetservice@dvg.aw with your actual cruising history before you commit to the passage.
Dogs
  • ON THE USA ROUTE, RESIDENCE HISTORY IS A CONDITION OF ENTRY. The animal must have "resided continuously in the USA for 6 months, immediately preceding the date of export to Aruba", or have "been born and lived in the USA continuously if younger than 6 months of age at the date of export to Aruba", or hold a "written exemption from the above by the Head of the Veterinary Service of Aruba". The health certificate must carry a statement to that effect.confidence: Inferred. Backed by an official source but not yet certified by a human reviewer.[1]
  • The Customs country list for dogs and cats names only the United States of America and The Netherlands alongside the prohibited set, and ends "Other countries: contact the Veterinary Service." Import of all live animals requires prior permission, and the decision "depends on the animal species and the country of origin".confidence: Inferred. Backed by an official source but not yet certified by a human reviewer.[2]
  • FOR ANY ORIGIN OTHER THAN THE USA THERE IS NO PUBLISHED RULESET. The Government of Aruba page sets out conditions for the United States and for nowhere else, and Customs refers every other country to the Veterinary Service without stating what it will ask for. The Netherlands is listed as a permitted origin with no conditions published for it at all. Read that as unpublished, not as unconditional.confidence: Inferred. Backed by an official source but not yet certified by a human reviewer.[12]
Cats
  • ON THE USA ROUTE, RESIDENCE HISTORY IS A CONDITION OF ENTRY. The animal must have "resided continuously in the USA for 6 months, immediately preceding the date of export to Aruba", or have "been born and lived in the USA continuously if younger than 6 months of age at the date of export to Aruba", or hold a "written exemption from the above by the Head of the Veterinary Service of Aruba". The health certificate must carry a statement to that effect.confidence: Inferred. Backed by an official source but not yet certified by a human reviewer.[1]
  • The Customs country list for dogs and cats names only the United States of America and The Netherlands alongside the prohibited set, and ends "Other countries: contact the Veterinary Service." Import of all live animals requires prior permission, and the decision "depends on the animal species and the country of origin".confidence: Inferred. Backed by an official source but not yet certified by a human reviewer.[2]
  • FOR ANY ORIGIN OTHER THAN THE USA THERE IS NO PUBLISHED RULESET. The Government of Aruba page sets out conditions for the United States and for nowhere else, and Customs refers every other country to the Veterinary Service without stating what it will ask for. The Netherlands is listed as a permitted origin with no conditions published for it at all. Read that as unpublished, not as unconditional.confidence: Inferred. Backed by an official source but not yet certified by a human reviewer.[12]

Sources

  1. 1

    Sanitary measures - Importing pets — Government of Aruba

    veterinary authorityAccessed 2026-08-12archived copy

  2. 2

    Pets — Departamento di Aduana (Aruba Customs)

    customsAccessed 2026-08-12archived copy

Last checked August 2026 · 2 high-priority open questions · Sources & questions

What the dots mean

confidence: Inferred. Backed by an official source but not yet certified by a human reviewer. official-backed, awaiting human reviewconfidence: Unknown. Not located in any source yet. not yet documented· How we grade