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

Leeward Islands

Sint Maarten

Import permit neededRabies vaccine neededVet certificate needed

Before you sail

  • Import permit
  • Rabies vaccine between 1 year and 3 weeks before arrival
  • Veterinary health certificate, endorsed by the exporting country's veterinary authority
  • Parasite treatment — internal and external
  • Microchip
  • Dogs vaccinated against: Distemper, Hepatitis, Leptospirosis, Bordetella, Parvovirus
  • Cats vaccinated against: Feline Leukemia, Feline Rhinotracheitis, Feline Calicivirus, Feline Panleukopenia, Feline Pneumonitis
  • Dogs and cats at least 15 weeks old

Not documented Rabies titer test · Quarantine

Timeline

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

On arrival & aboard

At the dock
NOTHING IS PUBLISHED ABOUT ARRIVAL ITSELF. The Conditions of Import were read in full: the dogs, cats and ferrets section is eight numbered conditions about age, the health certificate, vaccination, parasite treatment, identification, banned origins, pit-bull type dogs and the thirty-day validity of the permission — not one of them says who meets the animal, where, whether notice is owed or whether an officer inspects it. The requirement to submit a copy of the health certificate and the permit to the Inspectorate TEATT — Unit LVV is real, but it is condition 7 of the BIRDS section of the same document, and so is the only notification duty in it ("The Inspectorate TEATT–Unit LVV must be notified by the freight forwarders for all bird or poultry importations"); neither reaches a dog or a cat. Ask Unit LVV at LVV@sintmaartengov.org what a yacht is expected to do on arrival.

Quarantine

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

The import conditions document does not mention quarantine for dogs or cats. Absence of a statement is not an exemption — confirm with the Inspectorate before you sail.confidence: Unknown. Not located in any source yet.

Open questions

High priority

  1. HIGH PRIORITY — dogs and cats from South and Central America, excluding Suriname, are prohibited. The document does not define whether this follows the animal's origin, its residence history, or merely the last port before Sint Maarten. A yacht that cleared through Panama or Colombia earlier in the season should establish which reading the Inspectorate applies before committing to a landfall here.

Also open

  1. Sint Maarten does not accept EU pet passports and says so explicitly. Confirm what documentation it does accept for an animal arriving across the land border from French Saint-Martin, which is EU territory — the island is one landmass with two regimes and the document does not address the crossing.
  2. The permission is valid for 30 days from issue, but no application lead time, processing time or fee is stated. Confirm with LVV@sintmaartengov.org.
  3. No rabies minimum vaccination age is stated, only a 21-day pre-departure interval and a 15-week minimum age for the animal.
  4. Quarantine is not mentioned. Confirm whether any applies to an animal arriving by private yacht.
  5. Nothing addresses an animal that stays aboard and never lands, so no transit section is authored here. This matters more than usual in Simpson Bay, where a yacht may lie for weeks without the animal going ashore.

Page status

Leeward Islands · 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 2026-08-11 Recently checkedfreshness: Recently checked. Sources were last re-read 62 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.[1]
Validity
30 days (The permission is valid for entry within thirty days of issue, and only in conjunction with an endorsed International Health Certificate.)confidence: Inferred. Backed by an official source but not yet certified by a human reviewer.[1]

Rabies

Vaccination
Requiredconfidence: Inferred. Backed by an official source but not yet certified by a human reviewer.[1]
Min. before travel
21 days (Vaccinated at least 21 days prior to departure.)confidence: Inferred. Backed by an official source but not yet certified by a human reviewer.[1]
Max. before travel
365 days (No longer than one or three years prior to departure, according to the vaccine's registered duration.)confidence: Inferred. Backed by an official source but not yet certified by a human reviewer.[1]
Three-year vaccine
Accepted

Veterinary health certificate

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

A valid International Health Certificate issued by an accredited veterinarian and endorsed by the Chief Veterinary Officer of the exporting country. Sint Maarten states it is not part of the European Union and does not accept pet passports as a valid International Health Certificate. Certificates must be in Dutch or English, or carry an official translation into one of them.confidence: Inferred. Backed by an official source but not yet certified by a human reviewer.[1]

Parasite treatment

Internal

Free of internal parasites as determined by a negative fecal flotation test. If the animal tests positive it must be treated 21 days prior to departure with a registered medication as instructed by the manufacturer.confidence: Inferred. Backed by an official source but not yet certified by a human reviewer.[1]

External

Free from external parasites, particularly Amblyomma sp. and Boophilus sp. Treat with a parasiticide within 7 to 14 days prior to departure.confidence: Inferred. Backed by an official source but not yet certified by a human reviewer.[1]

Timing

Internal, if positive: 21 days prior to departure. External: within 7 to 14 days prior to departure. The date, validity period and product used must be stated on the certificate.confidence: Inferred. Backed by an official source but not yet certified by a human reviewer.[1]

Products named
Frontline; Certifect; Nexgard; Advantage; Bravectoconfidence: Inferred. Backed by an official source but not yet certified by a human reviewer.[1]

The five products are named in the import conditions as examples — "treated with a parasiticide (e.g., Frontline, Certifect, Nexgard, Advantage, Bravecto)" — and the document does not state that the list is exhaustive.[1]

Identification

Microchip
Requiredconfidence: Inferred. Backed by an official source but not yet certified by a human reviewer.[1]
Standard
ISO microchip, or a readable tattoo applied before July 2011.confidence: 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]

The identification number must be stated on the International Health Certificate.[1]

Animals & vaccinations

Dogs

Min. age
105 days (Fifteen weeks of age or older.)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 Min. age
The animal is 15 weeks of age or older.

Vaccinesconfidence: 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]

  • Distemper
  • Hepatitis
  • Leptospirosis
  • Bordetella
  • Parvovirus

Breed restrictionsconfidence: 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]

  • Pit-bull terrier type (permitted, conditionally) — importation is allowed, but the dog must be neutered or spayed and that fact must be stated on the International Health Certificate. Note this is the opposite of neighbouring Anguilla and Antigua, which prohibit the type outright.

Cats

Min. age
105 days (Fifteen weeks of age or older.)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 Min. age
The animal is 15 weeks of age or older.

Vaccinesconfidence: 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]

  • Feline Leukemia
  • Feline Rhinotracheitis
  • Feline Calicivirus
  • Feline Panleukopenia
  • Feline Pneumonitis

Other health requirements

Note
The document does not define what "from" means in condition 5 — whether it follows the animal's origin, its residence history, or merely the last port before Sint Maarten. A yacht that cleared through Panama or Colombia earlier in the season has no published answer, and there is no stated exception procedure to apply for. Condition 6 of the same document permits a pit-bull terrier type dog if it is neutered or spayed; that is graded at `animals.dogs.breed_restrictions` and is not repeated here.
Dogs
  • The International Health Certificate must state that "the animal(s) is/are free from observable cutaneous diseases" — condition 3.f. It is a skin-condition attestation the certifying veterinarian makes, distinct from the internal and external parasite conditions it sits beside.confidence: Inferred. Backed by an official source but not yet certified by a human reviewer.[1]
Cats
  • The International Health Certificate must state that "the animal(s) is/are free from observable cutaneous diseases" — condition 3.f. It is a skin-condition attestation the certifying veterinarian makes, distinct from the internal and external parasite conditions it sits beside.confidence: Inferred. Backed by an official source but not yet certified by a human reviewer.[1]

Sources

  1. 1

    Conditions of Import for Dogs, Cats and Ferrets — Sint Maarten Ministry TEATT — Inspectorate, Unit LVV

    veterinary authorityAccessed 2026-08-11archived copy

Last checked August 2026 · 1 high-priority open question · 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: Unknown. Not located in any source yet. not yet documented· How we grade