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

Windward Islands

Saint Vincent and the Grenadines

Import permit neededRabies vaccine neededRabies titer test neededVet certificate neededNo quarantine

Before you sail

  • Import permit — apply at least 3 days before arrival
  • Rabies vaccine; at least 12 weeks old when vaccinated
  • Rabies titer test — blood drawn at least 3 weeks after vaccination
  • Veterinary health certificate
  • Parasite treatment — internal and external
  • Microchip, implanted before the rabies vaccine
  • Dogs vaccinated against: Canine Distemper, Parvovirus, Leptospirosis, Hepatitis, Parainfluenza
  • Cats vaccinated against: Feline Rhinotracheitis, Panleukopenia, Feline Leukemia, Calicivirus, Chlamydophila psittaci
Not requiredQuarantine

Fees

Veterinary

A Veterinary Inspection Fee of EC$55.00 / US$20.00 per animal, chargeable upon inspection on arrival.confidence: Inferred. Backed by an official source but not yet certified by a human reviewer.[1]

After hours

Animals landed after 4:00 p.m. Monday to Friday, or on weekends or public holidays, are subject to a separate (unstated) inspection fee.confidence: Inferred. Backed by an official source but not yet certified by a human reviewer.[1]

No import permit fee is stated in any source obtained. The certificate requires an import permit but prices only the arrival inspection, and the Ministry's Animal Production Services page lists a Dog Import Permit form without naming a charge for it.[12]

Timeline

  1. 3 days before arrivalApply for the import permit
  2. ArrivalPresent the permit and certificate; clear the animal before going ashore.

On arrival & aboard

Advance notice
Forty-eight (48) hours notice of arrival must be given, to (784) 456-1111 ext. 326, or (784) 457-2452, or (784) 493-1749.confidence: Inferred. Backed by an official source but not yet certified by a human reviewer.[1]
Veterinary inspection
On arrivalconfidence: Inferred. Backed by an official source but not yet certified by a human reviewer.[1]
At the dock
The source document is written for an air/cargo shipment process (it asks for a port of embarkation and means of transport) and does not describe how a yacht gives the required 48-hour notice or presents an animal for inspection at a marine port of entry. The only port named by any source found (a commercial one) is Argyle International Airport, which is air-only and not useful for a cruising boat.

Quarantine

Quarantine
None requiredconfidence: Secondary. From a non-government source; treat as a lead, not gospel.[3]
If your papers are not in order

"Quarantine will not be imposed on your pet if the [import] regulations are met. Pets not meeting import regulations will be quarantined, returned to the origin country, or euthanized." Neither government document addresses quarantine at all; this claim comes from a commercial site only.confidence: Secondary. From a non-government source; treat as a lead, not gospel.[3]

Open questions

High priority

  1. HIGH PRIORITY — the only detailed protocol obtained is scoped to exports from the United States (it requires six months' US residency as a certification statement). A yacht arriving from Grenada, St Lucia or elsewhere in the Caribbean is not what this document was written for. Confirm with the Ministry whether the same microchip-before-vaccine, 12-week minimum age, FAVN titer and 7-day vaccine/parasite windows apply to non-US origins, or whether a separate general protocol exists.
  2. HIGH PRIORITY — the Ministry's own "Dog Import Permit" PDF, linked from agriculture.gov.vc, resolves to an internal address (http://192.168.1.35/...) and cannot be reached from the public internet. This is presumably SVG's actual general-purpose protocol and would likely resolve the scoping question above. Retry later, or request the document directly from the Ministry at (784) 456-1410 / office.agriculture@mail.gov.vc.

Also open

  1. No source states an overall rabies vaccination validity window relative to arrival (e.g. how recently the animal must have been vaccinated, or whether a three-year vaccine is accepted) — only the vaccine-to-titer timing is specified. A commercial site separately claims "30 days and 12 months prior to entry," but that figure is not corroborated by either government-adjacent document and is not recorded here.
  2. Quarantine is recorded as not routinely imposed, but the only source is a commercial site. Neither government document mentions quarantine at all. Confirm directly before assuming it does not apply.
  3. No source, official or commercial, confirms or rules out breed restrictions. Do not assume any breed is admissible without checking with the Ministry directly.
  4. Nothing describes a marine port of entry or a yacht-specific clearance procedure; the source document is written for an air/cargo shipment and the only named port (from a commercial source) is Argyle International Airport.
  5. Nothing addresses an animal that stays aboard and never lands, so no transit section is authored here.

About this page’s sources

  • The certificate itself could only be retrieved via a February 2025 Wayback Machine snapshot; its live URL and the current APHIS site were unreachable throughout authoring. It is dated "Version 05112018JH" (2018). Confirm it is still current.

Page status

Windward Islands · Independent Commonwealth realmDataset 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: 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 Permit
An import permit is required for entry of dogs and cats to St. Vincent and the Grenadines.
Apply ahead
3 days ("At least 3 working days to process once all requisite documents are submitted," per a commercial source, not either government document. No import permit is issued until the rabies titer laboratory result is received, so the practical lead time is longer than this figure alone suggests.)confidence: Secondary. From a non-government source; treat as a lead, not gospel.[4]
Phone
(784) 456-1410

Rabies

Vaccination
Requiredconfidence: Inferred. Backed by an official source but not yet certified by a human reviewer.[1]
Min. age at vaccination
84 days (The animal must be implanted with an ISO microchip BEFORE receiving an inactivated adjuvant rabies vaccine, and must be not less than twelve (12) weeks of age at the time of that vaccination.)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
Requiredconfidence: 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.[1]
Evidence for Blood titer
At least three (3) weeks following the rabies vaccination, a blood sample was taken from the animal(s) following microchip verification, and tested for antibody level via FAVN test at an approved laboratory*.
Test after vaccination
21 days (The blood sample is drawn at least three (3) weeks after the rabies vaccination. The laboratory result must be delivered to the Ministry and the protective antibody level confirmed BEFORE an import permit will be issued — no permit is issued while the result is pending.)confidence: Inferred. Backed by an official source but not yet certified by a human reviewer.[1]
Required level
A protective antibody level greater than 0.5 IU/ml, by FAVN test at an approved laboratory.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.[1]
Evidence for Required level
(Once the animal has a protective antibody level (>0.5 IU/ml) as established by the approved laboratory, the animal can be exported to St. Vincent and the Grenadines.

Veterinary health certificate

Certificate
Requiredconfidence: Inferred. Backed by an official source but not yet certified by a human reviewer.[1]
What the certificate must say

Upon inspection, the animal(s) were found to be in good health and free from symptoms of any notifiable or any other infectious or contagious disease.confidence: Inferred. Backed by an official source but not yet certified by a human reviewer.[1]

Parasite treatment

Internal

Treated for internal parasites with an approved broad-spectrum antihelminthic within seven (7) days prior to date of export.confidence: Inferred. Backed by an official source but not yet certified by a human reviewer.[1]

External

Treated for external parasites within seven (7) days prior to date of export.confidence: Inferred. Backed by an official source but not yet certified by a human reviewer.[1]

Timing

Within seven (7) days prior to date of export.confidence: Inferred. Backed by an official source but not yet certified by a human reviewer.[1]

Both treatments sit in a single certification statement — number 8 of the bilateral certificate — which is what makes them one window rather than two. The clock runs to the DATE OF EXPORT, so a passage does not consume it; the seven days have to cover the treatment, the examination and the Veterinary Authority's signature before you leave.[1]

Two limits on the source. The certificate is the US-origin bilateral form, so its wording binds an animal exported from the United States and is only evidence of what SVG asks of everyone else. And the Ministry's own Animal Production Services page does not mention parasite treatment at all, so there is no local restatement to check it against. A commercial site gives the same seven days but counts them to IMPORT rather than to export, which for a boat is the difference between an easy requirement and an impossible one — the certificate's wording is the one recorded above.[123]

Identification

Microchip
Requiredconfidence: Inferred. Backed by an official source but not yet certified by a human reviewer.[1]
Standard
Described only as an "I.S.O. microchip" — no specific ISO standard number (e.g. 11784/11785) is given in the source.confidence: 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]

Animals & vaccinations

Dogs

Vaccinesconfidence: Inferred. Backed by an official source but not yet certified by a human reviewer.[1]

  • Canine Distemper
  • Parvovirus
  • Leptospirosis
  • Hepatitis
  • Parainfluenza

Cats

Vaccinesconfidence: Inferred. Backed by an official source but not yet certified by a human reviewer.[1]

  • Feline Rhinotracheitis
  • Panleukopenia
  • Feline Leukemia
  • Calicivirus
  • Chlamydophila psittaci

Other health requirements

Note
Certification statement 1 of the source document requires the animal to have been born in the United States and never left it, or to have been in the United States for the six (6) months prior to export. This clause is specific to the US-origin certificate and is recorded here only to make the document's scope explicit — it is not a general SVG residency requirement.
Dogs
  • Tested for heartworm disease with negative results within seven (7) days prior to date of export.confidence: Inferred. Backed by an official source but not yet certified by a human reviewer.[1]

Sources

  1. 1

    Veterinary Health Certificate for Export of Dogs and Cats from the United States of America to St. Vincent and the Grenadines — USDA APHIS bilateral veterinary health certificate, populated with contact details, fees and notice rules supplied by the St. Vincent and the Grenadines Ministry of Agriculture

    veterinary authorityAccessed 2026-08-12Published 2018-05-11archived copy

  2. 2

    Animal Production Services — Saint Vincent and the Grenadines Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry, Fisheries and Rural Transformation

    agricultureAccessed 2026-08-12archived copy

  3. 3

    Saint Vincent and the Grenadines Pet Import Requirements — PetTravel.com

    secondaryAccessed 2026-08-12archived copy

  4. 4

    Pet Travel to St. Vincent & the Grenadines — The Caribbean Pet

    secondaryAccessed 2026-08-12archived copy

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

What the dots mean

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: Secondary. From a non-government source; treat as a lead, not gospel. non-government source· How we grade