South America
French Guiana
Rabies vaccine neededRabies titer test neededVet certificate within 10 days of arrival
Before you sail
- Rabies vaccine at least 3 weeks before arrival; at least 12 weeks old when vaccinatedRabies vaccineRequiredconfidence: Inferred. Backed by an official source but not yet certified by a human reviewer.[1]Rabies — min. before travel21 days (The vaccination is valid "not less than 21 days from the completion of the vaccination protocol for the primary vaccination", and each later vaccination must fall "within the period of validity of the preceding vaccination". The page does not say what follows a lapse; do not rely on a late booster without asking.)confidence: Inferred. Backed by an official source but not yet certified by a human reviewer.[1]Rabies — min. age at vaccination84 days (Twelve weeks at the date of vaccination: "The pet animal was at least 12 weeks old at the date the vaccine was administered." The vaccine must also not precede the date the microchip was implanted or read.)confidence: Inferred. Backed by an official source but not yet certified by a human reviewer.[1]
- Rabies titer test — blood drawn at least 30 days after vaccination; then wait 3 months before the certificate is issuedRabies titer testTiter — sample after vaccination30 days (Thirty days after the primary vaccination: the sample is "collected by an authorised veterinarian at least 30 days after the date of the primary vaccination, or within a current valid vaccination series". An animal whose boosters have kept its vaccination continuous can be sampled at any point within that series.)confidence: Inferred. Backed by an official source but not yet certified by a human reviewer.[1]Titer — wait after the draw90 days (Required only for an animal arriving from a NON-LISTED territory. The sample is collected by an authorised veterinarian at least 30 days after the primary vaccination, and not less than 90 days before the date of issue of the animal health certificate. An animal arriving from a listed territory is exempt entirely.)confidence: Inferred. Backed by an official source but not yet certified by a human reviewer.[1]Titer — wait counted toThe day the health certificate is issuedconfidence: Inferred. Backed by an official source but not yet certified by a human reviewer.[1]
- Veterinary health certificate issued within 10 days of arrivalVeterinary health certificateRequiredconfidence: Inferred. Backed by an official source but not yet certified by a human reviewer.[1]Certificate — completed within10 days (Ten days from issue by the official veterinarian to the documentary and identity checks at the travellers' point of entry — the Commission's words are "valid for 10 days from the date of issue by the official veterinarian until the date of the documentary and identity checks". Once checked, it covers onward movement within the EU for six months or until the rabies vaccination expires, whichever is earlier. Certificates on the older model under Implementing Regulation (EU) 577/2013 remain valid if issued before 1 October 2026.)confidence: Inferred. Backed by an official source but not yet certified by a human reviewer.[1]
- Microchip, implanted before the rabies vaccine
- Dogs vaccinated against: Rabies — compulsory for every domestic carnivore kept in Guyane, and for any introduced from mainland France, Corsica or another French overseas department (arrêté du 5 septembre 2008, articles 1 and 3). This is wider than the inherited EU rule, which governs entry from a non-EU country.Dogs — vaccinesRabies — compulsory for every domestic carnivore kept in Guyane, and for any introduced from mainland France, Corsica or another French overseas department (arrêté du 5 septembre 2008, articles 1 and 3). This is wider than the inherited EU rule, which governs entry from a non-EU country.confidence: Inferred. Backed by an official source but not yet certified by a human reviewer.[4]
- Cats vaccinated against: Rabies — compulsory for every domestic carnivore kept in Guyane, and for any introduced from mainland France, Corsica or another French overseas department (arrêté du 5 septembre 2008, articles 1 and 3). This is wider than the inherited EU rule, which governs entry from a non-EU country.Cats — vaccinesRabies — compulsory for every domestic carnivore kept in Guyane, and for any introduced from mainland France, Corsica or another French overseas department (arrêté du 5 septembre 2008, articles 1 and 3). This is wider than the inherited EU rule, which governs entry from a non-EU country.confidence: Inferred. Backed by an official source but not yet certified by a human reviewer.[4]
Not documented Import permit · Quarantine
Timeline
- 130 days before arrivalRabies vaccine — before the titer blood drawRabies vaccineRequiredconfidence: Inferred. Backed by an official source but not yet certified by a human reviewer.[1]Rabies — min. before travel21 days (The vaccination is valid "not less than 21 days from the completion of the vaccination protocol for the primary vaccination", and each later vaccination must fall "within the period of validity of the preceding vaccination". The page does not say what follows a lapse; do not rely on a late booster without asking.)confidence: Inferred. Backed by an official source but not yet certified by a human reviewer.[1]Titer — sample after vaccination30 days (Thirty days after the primary vaccination: the sample is "collected by an authorised veterinarian at least 30 days after the date of the primary vaccination, or within a current valid vaccination series". An animal whose boosters have kept its vaccination continuous can be sampled at any point within that series.)confidence: Inferred. Backed by an official source but not yet certified by a human reviewer.[1]Titer — wait after the draw90 days (Required only for an animal arriving from a NON-LISTED territory. The sample is collected by an authorised veterinarian at least 30 days after the primary vaccination, and not less than 90 days before the date of issue of the animal health certificate. An animal arriving from a listed territory is exempt entirely.)confidence: Inferred. Backed by an official source but not yet certified by a human reviewer.[1]Titer — wait counted toThe day the health certificate is issuedconfidence: Inferred. Backed by an official source but not yet certified by a human reviewer.[1]Certificate — completed within10 days (Ten days from issue by the official veterinarian to the documentary and identity checks at the travellers' point of entry — the Commission's words are "valid for 10 days from the date of issue by the official veterinarian until the date of the documentary and identity checks". Once checked, it covers onward movement within the EU for six months or until the rabies vaccination expires, whichever is earlier. Certificates on the older model under Implementing Regulation (EU) 577/2013 remain valid if issued before 1 October 2026.)confidence: Inferred. Backed by an official source but not yet certified by a human reviewer.[1]
- 100 days before arrivalRabies titer blood draw, at the latest — 3 months before the certificate is issuedRabies titer testTiter — wait after the draw90 days (Required only for an animal arriving from a NON-LISTED territory. The sample is collected by an authorised veterinarian at least 30 days after the primary vaccination, and not less than 90 days before the date of issue of the animal health certificate. An animal arriving from a listed territory is exempt entirely.)confidence: Inferred. Backed by an official source but not yet certified by a human reviewer.[1]Titer — wait counted toThe day the health certificate is issuedconfidence: Inferred. Backed by an official source but not yet certified by a human reviewer.[1]Certificate — completed within10 days (Ten days from issue by the official veterinarian to the documentary and identity checks at the travellers' point of entry — the Commission's words are "valid for 10 days from the date of issue by the official veterinarian until the date of the documentary and identity checks". Once checked, it covers onward movement within the EU for six months or until the rabies vaccination expires, whichever is earlier. Certificates on the older model under Implementing Regulation (EU) 577/2013 remain valid if issued before 1 October 2026.)confidence: Inferred. Backed by an official source but not yet certified by a human reviewer.[1]
- 10 days – arrivalVeterinary health certificate issued in this windowVeterinary health certificateRequiredconfidence: Inferred. Backed by an official source but not yet certified by a human reviewer.[1]Certificate — completed within10 days (Ten days from issue by the official veterinarian to the documentary and identity checks at the travellers' point of entry — the Commission's words are "valid for 10 days from the date of issue by the official veterinarian until the date of the documentary and identity checks". Once checked, it covers onward movement within the EU for six months or until the rabies vaccination expires, whichever is earlier. Certificates on the older model under Implementing Regulation (EU) 577/2013 remain valid if issued before 1 October 2026.)confidence: Inferred. Backed by an official source but not yet certified by a human reviewer.[1]
- ArrivalPresent the certificate; clear the animal before going ashore.
On arrival & aboard
- At the dock
- The arrêté du 5 septembre 2008 sets the condition on introduction — a domestic carnivore brought in from mainland France, Corsica or another French overseas department must be vaccinated against rabies — but it sets no procedure. It names no port, no notice period, no appointment and no inspection. Neither does anything else that was found: DAAF Guyane publishes no pet-import page, and the préfecture publishes no yacht-specific procedure. Nothing here should be read as saying a yacht may simply land an animal; it says only that no official source describing how to do it was located. Settle the arrival in writing with DAAF Guyane before committing to the passage.
- By yacht
- Once ashore, article 4 of the arrêté du 5 septembre 2008 requires the owner or keeper of a domestic carnivore — on the public highway and in all places and premises open to the public — to produce, on demand from any authority holding police powers, the document proving the animal's identification and a rabies vaccination validly established and currently in date. So the passport travels with the dog, not with the boat, and it must be current rather than merely once-valid. Articles 5 and 6 add that an animal showing signs suggestive of rabies must be presented to "un vétérinaire investi du mandat sanitaire" — a veterinarian holding the official sanitary mandate, not any vet — and that any animal that bites or scratches goes under fifteen days of surveillance with three veterinary visits. Article 7, not 5 or 6, puts the cost on the owner: "L'application de l'ensemble de ces mesures est aux frais du propriétaire, sauf celles relatives aux frais d'acheminement et d'analyses des prélèvements" — all of it at the owner's expense EXCEPT the costs of transporting and analysing samples. Nothing in the arrêté addresses an animal that remains aboard. NOTHING IN THIS SECTION IS GRADED, AND THAT IS DELIBERATE. The arrêté is the only source that could carry a vessel rule, and it is the one source this repository cannot read: the Légifrance text returns HTTP 403 to the corpus fetcher, so there is no local copy against which any of the quotations above — or the absence in the last sentence — can be checked. An ungraded paragraph that says so is honest; a graded leaf citing a document nobody here can open is not. Read the arrêté yourself on Légifrance before relying on a word of this.
Open questions
High priority
- HIGH PRIORITY — no source describes how an animal is actually cleared into Guyane. The arrêté du 5 septembre 2008 states a condition, not a procedure. DAAF Guyane's site was checked (its "Import/Export des animaux et végétaux" and "Animaux domestiques" sections carry nothing on companion animals) and the préfecture publishes nothing found. Ports of entry, advance notice, inspection, fees and the role of the SIVEP in Guyane are all unknown.
- HIGH PRIORITY — Guyane is a French department, so metropolitan French implementing rules apply between the EU regime and the territory, and no French national layer has been researched or authored. The DGAL note of 22 April 2026 on douane.gouv.fr is the obvious basis for one. Until that layer exists this page understates what is required, exactly as Guadeloupe and Martinique do.
- HIGH PRIORITY — the land border is undocumented here. Brazil and Suriname are non-EU, so the inherited EU regime should apply in full to an animal crossing the Oyapock or the Maroni, but nothing found states how the frontier is policed for pets, which crossings are points of entry, or whether the river ferries are treated as such. Do not assume an overland arrival is lighter than a sea arrival.
Also open
- The arrêté du 17 août 1964 prohibiting the entry of all live carnivores, domestic or wild, into the departments of Guadeloupe, Guyane, Martinique and Réunion is still cited in the visas of later texts, and an "avis aux importateurs de chiens et de chats" of 1990 granted a general exemption for up to three dogs or cats not intended for sale. Whether the 1964 prohibition and that exemption survive today was not established — the arrêté du 25 avril 2001 that recited them is itself abrogated since 31 December 2004. This question is not specific to Guyane: it bears on Guadeloupe and Martinique identically, and if it resolves as still in force it belongs on a French layer, not here.
- Whether a rabies antibody titration test is needed depends on where you sail from, and the neighbours here are mainland South American: Brazil, Suriname and Guyana have not been checked against the EU list of territories, and none of them is in this dataset. Where the test is required the sample must be drawn at least 30 days after primary vaccination and not less than 90 days before the health certificate is issued.
- Nothing addresses an animal that stays aboard and never lands, so no transit section is authored here.
Resolved (1)
- RESOLVED 2026-10-06 — the EU minimum vaccination age and the waiting period after primary vaccination are now recorded on the EU layer: twelve weeks at vaccination and 21 days after the primary vaccination, both stated on the Commission's page when it was re-read. The Commission also extends the certificate's ten-day validity by the length of a sea passage.
About this page’s sources
- Neither source could be archived to the Wayback Machine at the time of writing — the save endpoint returned 520 and then 429 (rate limited) on repeated attempts, for both the Légifrance text and the Commission page — so both are recorded without an archived_url. Re-run the archiving step.
Page status
South America · French overseas department and region; EU outermost regionDataset status Inferredconfidence: Inferred. Backed by an official source but not yet certified by a human reviewer.Last checked 2026-08-13 Recently checkedfreshness: Recently checked. Sources were last re-read 60 days ago, well inside the 180-day window. Recent is not reviewed — this page is still an unreviewed draft.
Evidence
Rabies
Vaccination
Requiredconfidence: Inferred. Backed by an official source but not yet certified by a human reviewer.[1]
Min. age at vaccination
84 days (Twelve weeks at the date of vaccination: "The pet animal was at least 12 weeks old at the date the vaccine was administered." The vaccine must also not precede the date the microchip was implanted or read.)confidence: Inferred. Backed by an official source but not yet certified by a human reviewer.[1]
Min. before travel
21 days (The vaccination is valid "not less than 21 days from the completion of the vaccination protocol for the primary vaccination", and each later vaccination must fall "within the period of validity of the preceding vaccination". The page does not say what follows a lapse; do not rely on a late booster without asking.)confidence: Inferred. Backed by an official source but not yet certified by a human reviewer.[1]
Rabies titer test
A blood test that measures rabies antibodies, to show the vaccination actually took. The sample has to be drawn a set time after the jab, and some places then make you wait months more before the animal may land — so this is the requirement most worth checking before you plan a route, not after.
Blood titer
Test after vaccination
30 days (Thirty days after the primary vaccination: the sample is "collected by an authorised veterinarian at least 30 days after the date of the primary vaccination, or within a current valid vaccination series". An animal whose boosters have kept its vaccination continuous can be sampled at any point within that series.)confidence: Inferred. Backed by an official source but not yet certified by a human reviewer.[1]
Wait after test
90 days (Required only for an animal arriving from a NON-LISTED territory. The sample is collected by an authorised veterinarian at least 30 days after the primary vaccination, and not less than 90 days before the date of issue of the animal health certificate. An animal arriving from a listed territory is exempt entirely.)confidence: Inferred. Backed by an official source but not yet certified by a human reviewer.[1]
Wait counted to
The day the health certificate is issuedconfidence: Inferred. Backed by an official source but not yet certified by a human reviewer.[1]
Required level
A serum neutralising antibody level equal to or greater than 0.5 IU/ml, measured in a designated laboratory.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.[1]
Completed within
10 days (Ten days from issue by the official veterinarian to the documentary and identity checks at the travellers' point of entry — the Commission's words are "valid for 10 days from the date of issue by the official veterinarian until the date of the documentary and identity checks". Once checked, it covers onward movement within the EU for six months or until the rabies vaccination expires, whichever is earlier. Certificates on the older model under Implementing Regulation (EU) 577/2013 remain valid if issued before 1 October 2026.)confidence: Inferred. Backed by an official source but not yet certified by a human reviewer.[1]
Arriving by sea
THE TEN DAYS STRETCH FOR A SEA PASSAGE: "In the case of a transport by sea, that period of 10 days is extended by an additional period corresponding to the duration of the journey by sea." The page does not say how the length of the passage is to be shown; the log and the last port's clearance-out papers are the obvious evidence to carry.confidence: Inferred. Backed by an official source but not yet certified by a human reviewer.[1]
What the certificate must say
An animal health certificate is required for a dog or cat entering EU territory from a non-EU country.confidence: Inferred. Backed by an official source but not yet certified by a human reviewer.[1]
Identification
Microchip
Requiredconfidence: Inferred. Backed by an official source but not yet certified by a human reviewer.[1]
Chip before rabies
The chip must be implanted before the rabies vaccinationconfidence: Inferred. Backed by an official source but not yet certified by a human reviewer.[1]
Tattoo
Accepted as identificationconfidence: Inferred. Backed by an official source but not yet certified by a human reviewer.[1]
A tattoo is accepted ONLY if it was applied before 3 July 2011: "EU countries shall authorise the movement into their territory of dogs, cats and ferrets identified by a clearly readable tattoo if applied before 3 July 2011." For any animal marked after that date the microchip is the only accepted identifier.[1]
Microchip specifications are laid down in Commission Delegated Regulation (EU) 2019/2035, art. 70a, point (a), as amended. The instrument itself was not read; the standard it sets is an outstanding question on the inheriting jurisdictions.[1]
Animals & vaccinations
Dogs
Vaccinesconfidence: Inferred. Backed by an official source but not yet certified by a human reviewer.[4]
- Rabies — compulsory for every domestic carnivore kept in Guyane, and for any introduced from mainland France, Corsica or another French overseas department (arrêté du 5 septembre 2008, articles 1 and 3). This is wider than the inherited EU rule, which governs entry from a non-EU country.
Cats
Vaccinesconfidence: Inferred. Backed by an official source but not yet certified by a human reviewer.[4]
- Rabies — compulsory for every domestic carnivore kept in Guyane, and for any introduced from mainland France, Corsica or another French overseas department (arrêté du 5 septembre 2008, articles 1 and 3). This is wider than the inherited EU rule, which governs entry from a non-EU country.
Sources
- 1
Bringing a pet into the EU from a non-EU country — European Commission — Directorate-General for Health and Food Safety
- 2
Outermost regions — European Commission — Directorate-General for Regional and Urban Policy
- 3
Listing of territories and non-EU countries — European Commission — Directorate-General for Health and Food Safety
- 4
Arrêté du 5 septembre 2008 relatif à des mesures de lutte contre la rage en Guyane et à l'introduction de carnivores domestiques en Guyane — République française — ministère de l'Agriculture (Légifrance)
Last checked August 2026 · 3 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 review· How we grade