Central America and Mexico
Mexico
No import permitRabies vaccine neededVet certificate within 15 days of arrival
Before you sail
- Rabies vaccine; at least 3 months old when vaccinatedRabies vaccineRabies — min. age at vaccination90 days (THREE MONTHS, AND IT IS AN EXEMPTION RATHER THAN A MINIMUM. "quedan exentos los animales menores de 3 meses de edad" — animals under three months of age are exempt, meaning the health certificate need not state a rabies vaccination for them. SENASICA publishes no minimum age at which the vaccine may be given, and no rule that an animal older than three months must have been vaccinated by any particular date. Ninety days is this file's arithmetic for "3 meses"; SENASICA states months, not days.)confidence: Inferred. Backed by an official source but not yet certified by a human reviewer.[12]
- Veterinary health certificate issued within 15 days of arrivalVeterinary health certificateRequiredconfidence: AI-vetted. An AI read the cited document and quoted the text it found; where the wording differed from ours, an AI judged the two equivalent. Not yet checked by a human — read the quote.[12]
Evidence for Veterinary health certificate
At your point of entry into the country, you must contact the official SENASICA personnel, who will carry out a documentary and physical review. For this, you must present a Certificate of Good Health with a maximum validity of 15 days from its date of issuance, in original and one simple copy
Certificate — completed within15 days (FIFTEEN DAYS FROM ISSUE, AND IT MUST STILL BE ALIVE WHEN YOU PRESENT IT. "un Certificado de Buena Salud con vigencia máxima de 15 días de haber sido expedido" — a certificate of good health with a maximum validity of 15 days from the date it was issued. SENASICA does not spell out whether the fifteen days run to departure or to arrival, but the document is produced to the officer at the point of entry and must be "vigente" then, so the working reading is TO ARRIVAL. Fifteen days is more forgiving than Colombia's ten and less forgiving than it looks: it covers Havana or Isla Mujeres from anywhere in the northwest Caribbean comfortably, and it does not cover a slow passage from the Windwards or a weather-bound wait. This window applies ONLY where the certificate is required at all — see `required` above and the official wording below.)confidence: Inferred. Backed by an official source but not yet certified by a human reviewer.[12] - Parasite treatment — internal and externalParasites — internalInternal deworming within the six months before travel, certified on the Certificado de Buena Salud: "Que el o los animales han sido desparasitados interna y externamente dentro de los seis meses previos". No product, active principle or dose is specified, and unlike Colombia there is no requirement to name the product on the certificate — only to attest that it was done.confidence: Inferred. Backed by an official source but not yet certified by a human reviewer.[12]Parasites — externalExternal deworming on the same terms and in the same window; SENASICA treats the two as one attestation. The certificate must ALSO state that the animals "se encuentran libres de ectoparásitos" — are free of ectoparasites — which is a statement about the animal's condition rather than about a treatment, and it is the one that gets tested on the dock. See the quarantine section for what happens when the inspection disagrees with the certificate.confidence: Inferred. Backed by an official source but not yet certified by a human reviewer.[12]Parasites — timingWithin the six months before travel — "dentro de los seis meses previos". This is the most generous parasite window in the dataset by a wide margin, and for once the arithmetic favours a boat: a treatment given before a long passage stays comfortably valid across it, unlike the fifteen-day certificate that carries the attestation. Note that the requirement, like the certificate it lives on, applies only where procedencia is other than the United States or Canada.confidence: Inferred. Backed by an official source but not yet certified by a human reviewer.[12]
- Dogs vaccinated against: Rabia (rabies) — and nothing else. Required only where a Certificado de Buena Salud is required, i.e. where procedencia is a country other than the United States or Canada. Animals under three months are exempt.Dogs — vaccinesRabia (rabies) — and nothing else. Required only where a Certificado de Buena Salud is required, i.e. where procedencia is a country other than the United States or Canada. Animals under three months are exempt.confidence: Inferred. Backed by an official source but not yet certified by a human reviewer.[12]
- Cats vaccinated against: Rabia (rabies) — and nothing else. Required only where a Certificado de Buena Salud is required, i.e. where procedencia is a country other than the United States or Canada. Animals under three months are exempt.Cats — vaccinesRabia (rabies) — and nothing else. Required only where a Certificado de Buena Salud is required, i.e. where procedencia is a country other than the United States or Canada. Animals under three months are exempt.confidence: Inferred. Backed by an official source but not yet certified by a human reviewer.[12]
Not documented Rabies titer test · Quarantine
Fees
None — there is no import permit for a dog or cat, so nothing is charged for one.confidence: Inferred. Backed by an official source but not yet certified by a human reviewer.[12]
NO CHARGE. The Certificado Zoosanitario para Importación is exempt from the certification duty when the animal is a pet: SENASICA's own form FF-SENASICA-003 is built for the exemption to be claimed — its "Pago de derechos" block has "Exento de pago" and "Justificación (aplica si es exento de pago)" fields — and the paragraph of the Ley Federal de Derechos it cites exempts "mascotas y perros guías para invidentes" from the duty this article imposes. For scale, fraction VI of the same article would otherwise charge MXN $3,355.55 for an international import zoosanitary certificate. No separate inspection, documentation or attendance fee for pets is published anywhere, and none is mentioned on SENASICA's pet page.confidence: Inferred. Backed by an official source but not yet certified by a human reviewer.[78101]
The costs that DO fall on the traveller are veterinary, not governmental: the private veterinarian who treats ectoparasites found at the inspection, the private veterinarian who issues a replacement Certificado de Buena Salud for an animal that arrives without one, and whatever measures SENASICA determines where it identifies a risk — "Los gastos que se generen correrán a tu cargo". No amounts are published for any of these because none of them are government charges.confidence: Inferred. Backed by an official source but not yet certified by a human reviewer.[1]
Treat any figure you are quoted for a Mexican pet import certificate with suspicion. The exemption is statutory, it is printed on the government's own form, and it applies to the certificate itself. What a broker, an agente aduanal or a marina agent charges for handling is a private fee and has nothing to do with SENASICA — note that SENASICA itself suggests a foreign trade agent only for an animal shipped as documented CARGO, which is not a liveaboard's situation.[1710]
Timeline
- 15 days – arrivalVeterinary health certificate issued in this windowVeterinary health certificateRequiredconfidence: AI-vetted. An AI read the cited document and quoted the text it found; where the wording differed from ours, an AI judged the two equivalent. Not yet checked by a human — read the quote.[12]
Evidence for Veterinary health certificate
At your point of entry into the country, you must contact the official SENASICA personnel, who will carry out a documentary and physical review. For this, you must present a Certificate of Good Health with a maximum validity of 15 days from its date of issuance, in original and one simple copy
Certificate — completed within15 days (FIFTEEN DAYS FROM ISSUE, AND IT MUST STILL BE ALIVE WHEN YOU PRESENT IT. "un Certificado de Buena Salud con vigencia máxima de 15 días de haber sido expedido" — a certificate of good health with a maximum validity of 15 days from the date it was issued. SENASICA does not spell out whether the fifteen days run to departure or to arrival, but the document is produced to the officer at the point of entry and must be "vigente" then, so the working reading is TO ARRIVAL. Fifteen days is more forgiving than Colombia's ten and less forgiving than it looks: it covers Havana or Isla Mujeres from anywhere in the northwest Caribbean comfortably, and it does not cover a slow passage from the Windwards or a weather-bound wait. This window applies ONLY where the certificate is required at all — see `required` above and the official wording below.)confidence: Inferred. Backed by an official source but not yet certified by a human reviewer.[12] - ArrivalPresent the certificate; clear the animal before going ashore.
On arrival & aboard
- At the dock
- THIS IS THE BEST-DOCUMENTED SEA ARRIVAL IN THE DATASET, AND IT IS STILL NOT A YACHT PROCEDURE. Read the two halves of that sentence separately. The good half: SENASICA defines its network as "puertos, aeropuertos y fronteras", publishes a directory of every OISA with a "SITIO" column that says "Puerto" outright, staffs six of them on the Quintana Roo coast, and — uniquely in this dataset — puts one of them INSIDE THE CAPITANÍA DE PUERTO AT ISLA MUJERES, the office a cruiser must visit anyway to clear the vessel. The directory even breaks its hours into "importación comercial" and "importación turística", and it is the tourist column that is staffed at Isla Mujeres, Puerto Morelos and Puerto Juárez. A pet carried by its owner is tourist import. Nothing here is inferred from an airport's arrangements. THE OTHER HALF: not one published word describes how a PRIVATE VESSEL presents an animal. Nothing says whether the OISA officer attends the boat or the crew walks the animal ashore to the office — and walking it ashore is itself the act of importing it. Nothing says how the CZI is sequenced against the Capitanía's despacho and the API and immigration formalities, whether the animal may be landed before the certificate is issued, or what happens to an animal at Xcalak or in the anchorages north of Mahahual, where there is no OISA at all. Cozumel's port OISA is tied to cruise-ship arrival times at Muelle Puerta Maya, which is not where a yacht lies. And note for the outbound leg — this is an EXPORT point, not an import one, and no export requirement is recorded on this page — that the same directory shows PET EXPORT as "No aplica" at Isla Mujeres, Puerto Morelos, Puerto Juárez, Cozumel and the Chetumal maritime terminal. In Quintana Roo the only listed pet-export windows are Cancún airport and Mahahual (Monday to Friday, 12:00-14:00). A boat that clears in at Isla Mujeres and expects to clear its animal out there on the way to Belize will not find that service in the directory.
Quarantine
Every cost arising from the inspection falls on the owner — the private veterinarian's treatment for ectoparasites, and whatever measures SENASICA determines where a risk is identified. No schedule of charges is published for any of it, and no SENASICA charge for holding or treating an animal appears anywhere.confidence: Inferred. Backed by an official source but not yet certified by a human reviewer.[12]
NO QUARANTINE OF ANY KIND IS DESCRIBED for a dog or cat entering Mexico — not on arrival, not for a missing certificate, not for an unvaccinated animal. The published consequence of arriving without paperwork is a private Mexican veterinarian, not confinement. What the page does describe is what happens at the physical inspection: "Si se detectan ectoparásitos, deberás de contactar a un médico veterinario de tu elección para que aplique un tratamiento, después del cual se procederá a su liberación, los gastos generados correrán por tu cuenta" — if ectoparasites are found you engage a vet of your choice, and after treatment the animal is released, at your cost; and "Si se detecta garrapata, adicional al tratamiento, el personal verificará que se retiren todos los especímenes que se encuentran sobre la mascota" — if a tick is found, staff verify every specimen has been removed. Above both sits a catch-all: "Cuando represente un riesgo, el Senasica determinará las medidas que se deben aplicar. Los gastos que se generen correrán a tu cargo" — where a risk exists, SENASICA determines the measures, at the owner's cost. That sentence could in principle mean detention; it does not say so. THE TICK PROCEDURE WAS REWRITTEN IN AUGUST 2026, AND A HOLDING POWER WENT WITH IT — but read the whole change before drawing comfort from it. The earlier text ran on lab referral: "Si se detecta garrapata, el personal enviará una muestra a un laboratorio oficial", and consequently "Las Oficinas de Inspección de Sanidad Agropecuaria (OISA) resguardará a tu mascota hasta obtener el resultado del laboratorio… para descartar que se traten de especímenes exóticos para México o bajo Campaña" — sample sent, animal held pending the result. The current text replaces referral with removal on the spot, so the holding power lapsed along with the step that made it necessary. That is a coherent rewrite rather than an unexplained deletion, and it should not be read as SENASICA renouncing any power to detain: the catch-all above survives untouched. For a boat on a weather window it is still worth asking about rather than assume.confidence: Unknown. Not located in any source yet.[134]
Open questions
High priority
- HIGH PRIORITY — the 03 August 2026 effective date, the document's name and its five-calendar-day validity come from PRESS REPORTING, not from SENASICA. They are graded `secondary` and they are the only claims on this page that are. Obtain the SENASICA or SADER bulletin, or the text of the SENASICA–APHIS arrangement itself, and confirm all four points. Confirm in particular whether the requirement is limited to any mode of arrival — SENASICA's page imposes no such limit, but neither does it mention vessels.
- HIGH PRIORITY — how does a PRIVATE VESSEL actually present an animal? The OISA directory puts a SENASICA office inside the Capitanía de Puerto at Isla Mujeres, staffed for tourist imports Monday to Saturday 09:00-18:00, and gives port offices at Puerto Morelos, Puerto Juárez, Cozumel, Mahahual and Chetumal. That is far more than most jurisdictions publish and it still leaves the procedure unwritten: does the officer come to the boat or does the animal come ashore, and if ashore, is landing it before the CZI is issued permitted? How is the CZI sequenced against the Capitanía's despacho, the API and immigration? Establish this with OISA Cancún before arrival.
- HIGH PRIORITY — ISLA MUJERES IS SHUT ON SUNDAYS. The directory lists no out-of-hours service, no overtime tariff and no call-out procedure anywhere in Quintana Roo except the 24-hour desks at Cancún airport and the Chetumal maritime terminal. Ask what a boat that makes landfall on a Saturday night or a Sunday is expected to do, whether the animal may remain aboard until Monday, and whether that is a lawful position or merely a tolerated one.
Also open
- HIGHEST PRIORITY — THE SCREWWORM DOCUMENT IS NINE DAYS OLD AND ITS EDGES ARE UNDEFINED. SENASICA's page requires dogs whose origen and procedencia are the United States to present a "Documento de Inspección" proving freedom from gusano barrenador del ganado, signed by a USDA-accredited veterinarian within five days before travel. It does not say what the document is called on its face, whether APHIS endorsement is needed, what form it takes, whether it must accompany or may replace anything else, or what happens to a dog that arrives without it. Above all it does not address FIVE DAYS BEFORE WHAT for a vessel: five days before leaving the United States, or five days before arriving in Mexico? A Key West to Isla Mujeres passage can be done inside five days and can equally take longer in the wrong weather. Ask SENASICA and ask APHIS, and ask before you cast off, because a USDA-accredited veterinarian cannot be found at sea.
- Xcalak, and the anchorages between Mahahual and the Belize border, have no OISA. Confirm whether an animal may be cleared at all at a port of entry without a SENASICA office, or whether the vessel must first call at one of the six listed ports.
- The Spanish and English versions of the SAME SENASICA page, both dated 04 August 2026, do not say the same thing. The Spanish heads the exempt block "Origen Canadá y procedencia Canadá"; the English heads it "Origin: Mexico and Canada; Provenance: Canada". A Mexican-origin animal returning from Canada is inside the exemption on one page and outside it on the other, and the previous version covered Mexico, the United States and Canada together. Ask SENASICA which is correct.
- The cruise-ship sentence moved. "Es el mismo procedimiento, si ingresas por franja fronteriza o en un crucero y sólo permaneces el tiempo del recorrido de la embarcación" now sits under the Canada block alone, where in the superseded version it covered Mexico, the United States and Canada. Ask whether that was deliberate, what it means for a passenger landing from a cruise ship arriving from the United States, and — the question this dataset actually needs — whether SENASICA reads "crucero" as covering a private cruising yacht. Do not assume it does.
- The June 2025 version stated that the OISA "resguardará a tu mascota hasta obtener el resultado del laboratorio" where a tick was found and sampled. That sentence is absent from the current text. Confirm whether SENASICA has given up the power to hold an animal pending a laboratory result, or merely stopped printing it. For a boat this is the difference between a delay and a detention.
- No maximum number of animals is published. Commercial pet-relocation sites state a limit of three per traveller and describe anything above it as a commercial import; SENASICA's page says nothing of the kind and no figure is recorded here for that reason. Confirm the threshold at which a liveaboard with several animals stops being a tourist import and becomes a commercial one, since that changes the fee position entirely — the exemption in article 86-A is for "mascotas".
- No breed restriction is published, and none is recorded here. SENASICA's entry requirements do not mention breed at all, though the CZI form has a "Raza" field. Confirm that no federal breed prohibition applies to importation, and check separately whether any Quintana Roo state or municipal rule restricts particular breeds ashore — that would not be SENASICA's to state and was not searched for here.
- Is the fifteen-day certificate window counted to departure or to arrival? SENASICA says only "vigencia máxima de 15 días de haber sido expedido" and the document is presented on entry, which points to arrival, but the page never says so. For a boat the difference is a whole passage. Confirm, and confirm at the same time whether an examination window exists behind the "inspección previa a su viaje" attestation, which is undated.
- Confirm the fee position at the counter. The exemption is statutory and pre-printed on the form, but no SENASICA page states in words that the pet CZI is free, and the reading here is assembled from the form and the Ley Federal de Derechos. Ask OISA Cancún to confirm no charge arises for a pet CZI, and record anything that is in fact charged.
- EXPORT, NOT IMPORT, AND THEREFORE NOT GRADED ON THIS PAGE — but it will decide a route. The same OISA directory shows "exportación de mascotas" as "No aplica" at Isla Mujeres, Puerto Morelos, Puerto Juárez, Cozumel and the Chetumal maritime terminal; in Quintana Roo it lists only Cancún airport (daily 06:00-22:00) and Mahahual (Monday to Friday, 12:00-14:00). No Mexican export requirement is recorded in this file. Establish, before committing to a southbound departure from Isla Mujeres, how a Certificado Zoosanitario de Exportación is obtained for an animal leaving by sea, and read the destination's page in this dataset first.
- Nothing addresses an animal that stays aboard and never lands, so no transit section is authored here.
Page status
Central America and Mexico · Sovereign federal republic (Estados Unidos Mexicanos)Dataset 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
Import permit
NONE, AND THE EXEMPTION IS STATUTORY. There is no advance import permit for a dog or cat, so nothing is charged for one; the document that is issued — the Certificado Zoosanitario para Importación (CZI) — is also free. The Ley Federal de Derechos says so in terms, in the third paragraph of article 86-A: "No se pagará el derecho a que se refiere este artículo por los animales y vegetales, sus productos y subproductos que se importen o exporten en forma temporal; mascotas y perros guías para invidentes..." — no fee is payable for pets. Without that exemption fracción VI of the same article would charge MXN $3,355.55 for an international import zoosanitary certificate. SENASICA's application form FF-SENASICA-003 is built for the exemption to be claimed: its "Pago de derechos" block has "Exento de pago" and "Justificación (aplica si es exento de pago)" fields, and the pet exemption is what goes in them. See the fees section.confidence: Inferred. Backed by an official source but not yet certified by a human reviewer.[1078]
- Phone
- +52 998 880 4899
Rabies
- Three-year vaccine
- Accepted
READ THIS BEFORE ASSUMING RABIES IS REQUIRED AT ALL. The rabies vaccination appears in SENASICA's text only as an ELEMENT OF THE CERTIFICADO DE BUENA SALUD, and that certificate is only demanded where procedencia is a country other than the United States or Canada. From the United States or from Canada, SENASICA states plainly that "No es necesario presentar Certificado de Buena Salud y cartilla de vacunación" — neither a health certificate nor a vaccination record need be presented. This file grades rabies `required: true` because that is the position for every arrival not covered by those two exemptions, and because it is the safe way to plan; it is NOT a statement that an unvaccinated dog may be landed at Isla Mujeres off a boat from Key West. What the certificate must show, where required, is the date the vaccine was given and its period of validity. SENASICA names no approved vaccine type, manufacturer or laboratory, imposes no inactivated-vaccine rule, and states no booster interval. Animals under three months are exempt. The three-year product is contemplated: the PMVF enrolment page accepts a rabies vaccine valid for one or three years as the veterinarian specifies.confidence: Inferred. Backed by an official source but not yet certified by a human reviewer.[129]
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.
Veterinary health certificate
Evidence for Certificate
At your point of entry into the country, you must contact the official SENASICA personnel, who will carry out a documentary and physical review. For this, you must present a Certificate of Good Health with a maximum validity of 15 days from its date of issuance, in original and one simple copy
Evidence for Gov. endorsement
Issued by an official Veterinarian of the competent authority or, if it is a private veterinarian, on letterhead paper, with the professional license number printed or photocopied (or its equivalent).
ONE SENTENCE ON THE PAGE MENTIONS ARRIVAL BY SEA, AND IT IS NOT ABOUT YACHTS. Under the Canada block: "Es el mismo procedimiento, si ingresas por franja fronteriza o en un crucero y sólo permaneces el tiempo del recorrido de la embarcación" — the same procedure applies if you enter via the border strip or on a CRUISE SHIP and stay only for the duration of the vessel's itinerary. Three things about it. First, "crucero" is a cruise ship, not a cruising yacht; nothing indicates SENASICA had private vessels in mind. Second, it says the procedure is the SAME, not that it is waived — the animal is still physically inspected. Third, and most consequential, IT MOVED. In the version archived in June 2025 this sentence sat under a block that covered Mexico, the United States and Canada together; on the current page it sits under "Origen Canadá y procedencia Canadá" alone. Whether that was deliberate or an artefact of splitting the United States out is not stated anywhere. Beyond this, there is no allowance of any kind for time spent on passage: the fifteen-day certificate validity has no sea extension, and the five-day screwworm document for dogs from the United States has none either.confidence: Inferred. Backed by an official source but not yet certified by a human reviewer.[13]
THE CERTIFICATE IS REQUIRED ONLY FOR "PROCEDENCIA DE OTROS PAÍSES" — arrivals from anywhere other than the United States or Canada. For those arrivals: "En tu punto de ingreso al país, debes contactar al personal oficial del Senasica quien realizará una revisión documental y física, para ello debes presentar un Certificado de Buena Salud con vigencia máxima de 15 días de haber sido expedido, en original y copia simple, con los siguientes elementos: Expedido por un Médico Veterinario oficial de la autoridad competente o si es particular, en papel membretado, con el número de cédula profesional impresa o fotocopia de la misma (o su equivalente). Nombre y dirección del exportador (en país de origen o procedencia) y del importador (dirección de destino en México). Fecha de aplicación de la vacuna contra la rabia y vigencia de la misma (quedan exentos los animales menores de 3 meses de edad). Que en la inspección previa a su viaje, el o los animales se encontraron clínicamente sanos. Que el o los animales han sido desparasitados interna y externamente dentro de los seis meses previos y se encuentran libres de ectoparásitos." — In SENASICA's own English: contact the official SENASICA personnel at the point of entry, who will carry out a documentary and physical review; present a Certificate of Good Health with a maximum validity of 15 days from its date of issuance, in original and one simple copy, issued by an official veterinarian of the competent authority or, if a private veterinarian, on letterhead paper with the professional licence number printed or photocopied; naming the exporter (in the country of origin or provenance) and the importer (destination address in Mexico); stating the date of administration of the rabies vaccine and its period of validity (animals under 3 months of age are exempt); that during the pre-travel inspection the animals were found clinically healthy; and that they have been dewormed internally and externally within the six months prior and are free of ectoparasites. NOTE WHAT IS NOT ASKED FOR: no government endorsement, no apostille, no consular stamp. A private veterinarian's letterhead and licence number suffice — which is why endorsement_required is recorded false. And note the fallback SENASICA publishes for anyone who arrives without one: "Si no cuentas con el Certificado de Buena Salud o carnet de vacunación, debes solicitar los servicios de un Médico Veterinario particular de tu elección en México, quien deberá aplicar los tratamientos correspondientes y expedir el Certificado de Buena Salud" — engage a private Mexican vet of your choosing, who applies the treatments and issues the certificate. There is no quarantine and no re-shipment in that sentence. It is the softest landing for a missing certificate anywhere in this dataset, and it is the reason the fifteen-day window is less frightening here than the ten-day window is in Cartagena.confidence: Inferred. Backed by an official source but not yet certified by a human reviewer.[12]
Parasite treatment
Internal deworming within the six months before travel, certified on the Certificado de Buena Salud: "Que el o los animales han sido desparasitados interna y externamente dentro de los seis meses previos". No product, active principle or dose is specified, and unlike Colombia there is no requirement to name the product on the certificate — only to attest that it was done.confidence: Inferred. Backed by an official source but not yet certified by a human reviewer.[12]
External deworming on the same terms and in the same window; SENASICA treats the two as one attestation. The certificate must ALSO state that the animals "se encuentran libres de ectoparásitos" — are free of ectoparasites — which is a statement about the animal's condition rather than about a treatment, and it is the one that gets tested on the dock. See the quarantine section for what happens when the inspection disagrees with the certificate.confidence: Inferred. Backed by an official source but not yet certified by a human reviewer.[12]
Within the six months before travel — "dentro de los seis meses previos". This is the most generous parasite window in the dataset by a wide margin, and for once the arithmetic favours a boat: a treatment given before a long passage stays comfortably valid across it, unlike the fifteen-day certificate that carries the attestation. Note that the requirement, like the certificate it lives on, applies only where procedencia is other than the United States or Canada.confidence: Inferred. Backed by an official source but not yet certified by a human reviewer.[12]
A tapeworm (Echinococcus) treatment window of the kind the EU and several Caribbean jurisdictions impose does NOT exist here — SENASICA asks only for generic internal and external deworming within six months. Nothing requires the treatment to be administered by an official veterinarian, and nothing requires it to be recorded in a passport or booklet; the attestation on the health certificate is the whole of the requirement.[12]
The Programa Mascota Viajero Frecuente, the voluntary registration for animals entering Mexico regularly, puts the same six months on the register rather than on a certificate: "Desparasitación interna y externa (tendrá una vigencia de 6 meses)". It accepts the proof either on the Certificado de Buena Salud or in a vaccination booklet. It is an alternative route through the paperwork, not an additional requirement.[9]
Identification
NO MICROCHIP IS REQUIRED TO BRING A DOG OR CAT INTO MEXICO. Be careful what you do with that. Almost every jurisdiction in this dataset requires one, the United States requires one of dogs entering it, and the chip must in many places be readable BEFORE the rabies vaccination that it is supposed to identify. Arriving in Quintana Roo without a chip may satisfy SENASICA completely and still leave the animal unable to go anywhere else. Chip first, then vaccinate, then plan the route — Mexico's silence is not a saving.[129]
Animals & vaccinations
Dogs
Vaccinesconfidence: Inferred. Backed by an official source but not yet certified by a human reviewer.[12]
- Rabia (rabies) — and nothing else. Required only where a Certificado de Buena Salud is required, i.e. where procedencia is a country other than the United States or Canada. Animals under three months are exempt.
Cats
Vaccinesconfidence: Inferred. Backed by an official source but not yet certified by a human reviewer.[12]
- Rabia (rabies) — and nothing else. Required only where a Certificado de Buena Salud is required, i.e. where procedencia is a country other than the United States or Canada. Animals under three months are exempt.
Other health requirements
- Dogs
- NEW WORLD SCREWWORM (gusano barrenador del ganado, GBG) INSPECTION DOCUMENT — required of DOGS whose origen and procedencia are the United States. "debes presentar el Documento de Inspección que compruebe que tu perro (quedan exentos gatos) está libre de gusano barrenador del ganado (GBG). El documento debe estar firmado por un veterinario acreditado por el Departamento de Agricultura de los Estados Unidos (USDA) dentro de los 5 días previos al viaje." Signed by a USDA-accredited veterinarian within the five days before travel; SENASICA's English edition of the same page extends it to birds ("your dog or bird (cats are exempt)"). SENASICA imposes no limit on the mode of arrival, and the cruise-ship carve-out it grants Canadian arrivals appears nowhere in the United States paragraph, so on the face of the text it applies to a dog stepping off a yacht exactly as it applies to one stepping off an aircraft.confidence: Inferred. Backed by an official source but not yet certified by a human reviewer.[1211]
Sources
- 1
Requisitos y procedimientos para viajar a México con tu mascota (current version, published 04 August 2026 — the version that introduced the screwworm inspection document for dogs from the United States) — Servicio Nacional de Sanidad, Inocuidad y Calidad Agroalimentaria (SENASICA) — Secretaría de Agricultura y Desarrollo Rural (SADER)
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Requirements and Procedures for Traveling to Mexico with Your Pet — SENASICA's own English version of the page above, same date. Cited for the English renderings and for one discrepancy: its heading reads "Origin: Mexico and Canada; Provenance: Canada" where the Spanish reads "Origen Canadá y procedencia Canadá" — Servicio Nacional de Sanidad, Inocuidad y Calidad Agroalimentaria (SENASICA) — Secretaría de Agricultura y Desarrollo Rural (SADER)
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Requisitos y procedimientos para viajar a México con tu mascota — SUPERSEDED version dated 06 February 2024, captured 13 June 2025. Cited only as evidence of what the requirements said before 04 August 2026; none of its content is recorded as current — Servicio Nacional de Sanidad, Inocuidad y Calidad Agroalimentaria (SENASICA), as archived by the Internet Archive
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Si viajas con tu mascota — SUPERSEDED version dated 13 March 2019, captured 12 November 2020. Cited in the header note for one point only: that the health-certificate exemption for arrivals from the United States and Canada ("Si viajas de EU o Canadá no es necesario presentar el certificado de Salud de tu mascota") already existed in 2019 and is not a recent relaxation. Nothing else in it is recorded — Servicio Nacional de Sanidad, Inocuidad y Calidad Agroalimentaria (SENASICA), as archived by the Internet Archive
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Directorio de Oficinas de Inspección de Sanidad Agropecuaria (OISA), última actualización 01 de julio de 2026 — SENASICA — Dirección General de Inspección Fitozoosanitaria (DGIF), Dirección de Servicios Cuarentenarios en Puertos, Aeropuertos y Fronteras (DSCPAF)
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Ley Federal de Derechos, artículo 86-A — certification duty for zoosanitary, phytosanitary and aquaculture-health certificates, and the paragraph exempting "mascotas y perros guías para invidentes" — Congreso de la Unión — consolidated text published by the Cámara de Diputados, Secretaría de Servicios Parlamentarios (última reforma DOF 07-11-2025)
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Last checked August 2026 · 3 high-priority open questions · Sources & questions
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confidence: AI-vetted. An AI read the cited document and quoted the text it found; where the wording differed from ours, an AI judged the two equivalent. Not yet checked by a human — read the quote. AI read the source and judged the match, awaiting human reviewconfidence: 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