Mainland United States

South Carolina

No import permitRabies vaccine neededVet certificate within 30 days of arrivalNo quarantine

Where the animal may not come from

Dogs

A FOREIGN-VACCINATED DOG THAT HAS BEEN IN A HIGH-RISK COUNTRY IN THE LAST SIX MONTHS CANNOT BE LANDED FROM A BOAT AT ANY US SEAPORT. CDC: "Dogs that have been in ANY high- risk countries in the last 6 months and have a valid Certification of Foreign Rabies Vaccination and Microchip form Can only enter at a U.S. airport with a CDC-registered animal care facility where the dog has a reservation." Land borders are closed to it too. AND IN PUERTO RICO AND THE US VIRGIN ISLANDS THERE IS NO ROUTE AT ALL, BY SEA OR AIR: "There are currently no CDC-registered animal care facilities in Alaska, Hawaii, or U.S. territories; therefore, these dogs may not enter the U.S. through Alaska, Hawaii, or a U.S. territory." Eight destinations on this site are on CDC's high-risk list — Belize, Colombia, the Dominican Republic, Guatemala, Guyana, Honduras, Suriname and Venezuela — so a boat that has called at any of them with a dog vaccinated outside the United States has no lawful way to bring that dog ashore here, however good its paperwork. WHAT DOES NOT FALL UNDER IT: a dog that has been only in rabies-free or low-risk countries for six months "Can enter at any port of entry", seaports included; and a US-vaccinated dog carrying a valid Certification of U.S.-issued Rabies Vaccination — which must be endorsed by USDA BEFORE the dog leaves the United States — may also use any seaport. The single sea exception is a service dog as defined in 14 CFR 382.3, travelling with the person it assists and holding a valid rabies titer from a CDC-approved laboratory; emotional-support and companion animals are expressly not service animals. Cats are not covered by this rule. Not answered anywhere: whether a dog that stays aboard at anchor in a high-risk country "has been in" it. CDC answers that only for a service dog on a cruise ship, which it treats as not having been in the country if it does not disembark.confidence: Inferred. Backed by an official source but not yet certified by a human reviewer.^[4,3]

This is a bar, not a condition — no permit, fee or waiting period is offered as a way through it. Check it before you plan the passage, not on arrival.

Before you sail

Rabies vaccine within 1 year before arrival
Veterinary health certificate issued within 30 days of arrival, endorsed by the exporting country's veterinary authority
Parasite treatment — internal and external
Microchip
Dogs vaccinated against: Rabies (required)
Cats vaccinated against: Rabies (required)

Not requiredImport permit · Quarantine

Not documented Rabies titer test

Fees

Permit

No South Carolina charge, and no state document to pay for. Clemson LPH's canine/feline import page runs to three requirements — a Certificate of Veterinary Inspection valid for 30 days, proof of rabies vaccination, and that the animal is "Not exposed to or from an area under quarantine for Rabies" — every one of them obtained from a private veterinarian, with no state permit and no charge named. Reg. 27-1013(D)(1) states the same requirement in the regulation and sets no fee, and Title 47 sets no entry or certificate charge payable to LPH. ONE CAVEAT THAT KEEPS THIS FROM BEING AIRTIGHT: § 47-4-140(B) empowers the commission to "establish a fee schedule for the various services provided by the commission", and no such schedule reaching a dog or cat was located. A finding about the state, not about what the arrival costs — the inherited federal requirements and your own veterinarian are separate.confidence: Inferred. Backed by an official source but not yet certified by a human reviewer.^[5,8,9]

Inspection

Not published. Neither the LPH import pages nor Reg. 27-1013 describes a state inspection of an arriving dog or cat, and neither prices one. Absence of a published fee is not evidence that none is charged; confirm if you are told to present an animal.confidence: Unknown. Not located in any source yet.

COSTS ARISE ON THE NON-COMPLIANCE PATH RATHER THAN AS A TARIFF — a statutory lien for quarantine expenses, recorded at quarantine.fees, with no figure published for it. Read the scope of that lien carefully before assuming it reaches you: § 47-4-70(E) gives the lien over "quarantined livestock or poultry", and § 47-4-20(7) defines livestock as "all classes and breeds of animals, domesticated or feral, raised for use, sale, or display".^[9]

A SOUTH CAROLINA ZERO SAYS NOTHING ABOUT THE FEDERAL ARRIVAL. Sailing in from a foreign port is an international entry, and CBP puts the layers in order: importations of pets "may be subject to state/municipality veterinary health regulations, federal quarantine, agriculture, wildlife, and customs requirements and/or prohibitions." Only the first of those is what this section priced.^[11]

Timeline

1 year before arrivalRabies vaccine given no earlier than this
30 days – arrivalVeterinary health certificate issued in this window
ArrivalPresent the certificate; clear the animal before going ashore.

Most of this page is not this territory’s own rule

United States — federal entry layer (CDC)·42 CFR 71.51 (Foreign Quarantine — dogs and cats)

What establishes that

NOTHING CITED HERE ESTABLISHES IT, AND THE LAYER IS APPLIED ANYWAY. The federal rules on this page reach South Carolina because they are the United States' own import law and South Carolina is a US state — which is true, and is not the same as sourced. No document in this file's chain states that 42 CFR 71.51 or 9 CFR 93.600 applies to an arrival at a South Carolina port, nor does any South Carolina source acknowledge the federal layer for dogs and cats the way Florida's and the US Virgin Islands' do. The requirements themselves are cited; the reason they are listed on this page is not. Treat the federal half as binding — CBP clears the arrival — and the gap as this file's, not the law's.confidence: Unknown. Not located in any source yet.

On arrival & aboard

At the dock: IS THERE ANY ANIMAL INSPECTION AT A SEAPORT ARRIVAL? Nothing found says there is. On a foreign arrival at Charleston the clearance is federal: CBP officers inspect the vessel and its people, working with CDC and USDA APHIS, and CDC's dog rules in the inherited federal layer are what is actually checked for an animal. No source places a Clemson LPH officer, a state veterinarian or any South Carolina inspector at a marina, a customs dock or a port of entry. South Carolina's own enforcement provision is NOT limited to roads, whatever its practical use: § 47-4-90 lets a "municipal, county, or state law enforcement officer or highway patrolman" stop a conveyance transporting livestock "by whatever means of transportation" within the state to check for "the proper certificate of veterinary inspection, permit, receipt, or other documents". A boat is a conveyance and the statute does not exclude it. What can fairly be said is that no source describes anyone exercising that power at a marina, so the realistic exposure is probably later, ashore, if the animal is presented to a South Carolina vet, boarding kennel or shelter that asks for entry paperwork, or if a bite or rabies question brings the Rabies Control Act into play. Carry a CVI and the rabies certificate anyway: the requirement is written origin-neutrally, and the absence of a checkpoint is not the absence of an obligation. Contact: Clemson Livestock Poultry Health, 500 Clemson Rd, Columbia SC 29229, +1 803 788 2260; State Veterinarian Mike Neault, DVM, mneault@clemson.edu, +1 803 726 7818.
By yacht: KEEP INTERSTATE AND INTERNATIONAL APART — conflating them is the easiest mistake to make here. Sailing into Charleston from the Bahamas, Turks & Caicos or the eastern Caribbean is an INTERNATIONAL arrival into the United States: the inherited CDC dog rules apply in full, clearance is CBP's, and the CDC Dog Import Form is required even for a US dog coming home. Sailing down from Beaufort, NC or up from Georgia on the Intracoastal Waterway is INTERSTATE movement instead, which is the situation South Carolina's CVI rule was actually drafted for — and on that trip the 30-day CVI and the rabies conflict recorded above are squarely in point. What is unresolved is the overlap: whether the state CVI requirement also attaches to the boat that came in from Nassau. See veterinary_certificate.sea_voyage_exceptions; nothing published answers it, and this file does not guess. One practical consequence of the leash finding is worth stating plainly: the state's silence is not a licence, because the ordinance that governs the dock is the one nobody publishes alongside the entry requirements.

Quarantine

None required^[9]

What it costs, and who pays

NO PUBLISHED COST RULE IS WRITTEN FOR A PET, and whether the statutory lien reaches one is genuinely unsettled. Chapter 4 gives the provider of goods, services, tests or premises a lien over the animal for their reasonable value — "a first lien" at § 47-4-60(E), "a lien" at § 47-4-70(E) — but in both places it attaches to "livestock or poultry", and § 47-4-20(7) defines livestock as animals "raised for use, sale, or display", which a cruising pet is not. The other reading has real support: Reg. 27-1013 is headed "Importation of Livestock", applies to "All livestock, as defined by 47-4-20(7)", and then regulates canines and felines under that heading at (D)(1) — so the Commission itself treats dogs and cats as within its livestock import regime, and on that reading the lien reaches them too. (D)(1) says nothing about who pays either way. So expect to bear the cost of a hold, but there is no tariff to quote and no provision written for your animal.confidence: Inferred. Backed by an official source but not yet certified by a human reviewer.^[9,8]

If your papers are not in order

No routine quarantine for a compliant animal. But the consequence of arriving without a certificate is set out in the statute and is worth reading before a landfall. § 47-4-60(E): livestock "entering the State without a prior certificate or not otherwise authorized must be held in quarantine at the nearest suitable location while necessary tests or inspections, or both, are conducted" — alternatively they "may be allowed to return to its point of origin, with notification to the appropriate state veterinarian". § 47-4-70(F) goes further: livestock "quarantined for lack of proper health certification and not claimed by the consignor, consignee, or owner within ten days after notification of clearance is deemed to be abandoned and must be disposed of by sale at the next sale at the nearest market". That abandonment-and-sale machinery is plainly written for commercial livestock, and nothing says how or whether it is applied to a family pet. Nor is it clear it reaches one: § 47-4-20(7) defines livestock as animals "raised for use, sale, or display", which a cruising pet is not, and the only South Carolina text that expressly reaches dogs and cats is Reg. 27-1013(D)(1), headed "Canines/Felines", which imposes the certificate and says nothing about what follows a breach. So the obligation is clear and the consequence is not.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.^[9,8]

Evidence for If your papers are not in order

Livestock and poultry entering the State without a prior certificate or not otherwise authorized must be held in quarantine at the nearest suitable location while necessary tests or inspections, or both, are conducted.

Open questions

High priority

HIGH PRIORITY — the rabies interval is a genuine conflict between two official instruments and is left unresolved here on purpose. Reg. 27-1013(D)(1)(c) bars a CVI where the animal "has not been vaccinated against rabies in the past 12 months"; the State Veterinarian's own import page states the § 47-5-60 "continuous protection" formula, which a current three-year vaccine meets. Ask LPH which governs in practice, and specifically whether a dog on a valid three-year vaccine boosted more than 12 months ago will be accepted. The regulation dates from 1998 and may simply predate multi-year products.

Also open

HIGHEST PRIORITY, AND THE REASON THIS PAGE EXISTS — does South Carolina's CVI requirement reach an animal arriving at Charleston directly from a foreign port? Nothing published answers it. The rule is written origin-neutrally ("upon importation into the state") and the enabling statute § 47-4-30(A) expressly covers importation from a "foreign country", yet the certificate's mandatory contents under § 47-4-60(B)(7) require "approval by the livestock-poultry health authority of the state of origin", which no foreign country has. Ask the State Veterinarian's office (+1 803 788 2260) directly: does a boat clearing in from Nassau or Tortola with a dog aboard need a South Carolina CVI, and if so, what document is accepted in place of a US state health authority's endorsement — an APHIS 7001, a foreign government veterinary certificate, or nothing at all?
Establish whether ANY animal inspection happens at a South Carolina seaport arrival, and by whom. Clearance is CBP's; no source places a state or Clemson inspector at a marina or customs dock, and § 47-4-90 is a roadside power over conveyances. Confirm with LPH and with CBP Charleston whether the state is notified of arriving pets at all, and what a cruiser is actually expected to present at the dock.
Confirm that dogs and cats are correctly treated as "livestock". Reg. 27-1013 is titled "Importation of Livestock" and sets canine/feline terms at D.1, but § 47-4-20(7) defines livestock as animals "raised for use, sale, or display". A pet living aboard a yacht is arguably none of those. Ask whether the commission reads the definition as reaching companion animals generally, since the quarantine and abandonment provisions of § 47-4-70(F) — sale at market after ten unclaimed days — follow from that classification.
"The department" in the rabies sentence on the LPH import page is defined by § 47-5-20(2) as the South Carolina Department of Health and Environmental Control, not Clemson LPH. DHEC was restructured in 2024 and its public health functions moved to the South Carolina Department of Public Health; the statute still names DHEC. Confirm which agency now approves rabies vaccines for this purpose, and whether that agency publishes anything about animals brought into the state — nothing from it was located during this draft.
Confirm whether the metal rabies licence tag required by § 47-5-60 is expected of a visiting animal. The section requires the tag to be attached to a collar or harness "at all times", but it is framed as a duty of a pet owner in the state and is issued by the South Carolina veterinarian who gives the shot — a foreign-vaccinated dog off a boat cannot have one. Establish at what point a cruising animal becomes subject to it.
Confirm the Health Permit route. Reg. 27-1011(C) allows an HP only "as temporary measures ... in emergency situations or under circumstances which could not have been reasonably foreseen". Ask whether an arrival from a foreign port without a US-form CVI qualifies, since for a boat it may be the only workable path.
Reg. 27-1013 was last amended in 1998 and Reg. 27-1010/27-1011 in 1995 and 2003. The LPH import index's "Emergency Notices" link is marked "updated 8/29/19". Confirm no newer instrument, notice or emergency regulation governs dog and cat entry, and check Emergency Notices before travelling.
Nothing addresses an animal that stays aboard and never lands, so no transit section is authored here.

About this page’s sources

Verify the inherited CDC federal requirements against cdc.gov, which blocks automated access and could not be read directly at author time.
Wayback rate-limited (HTTP 429) two of the seven sources at author time, so the Chapter 27 regulations PDF and the CBP page carry PRE-EXISTING snapshots (2025-05-23 and 2026-08-03) rather than captures made when this file was written. The five Clemson and statute pages were archived fresh on 2026-08-14. Re-archive the two older ones on review and check the regulation PDF has not changed since its snapshot.

Page status

Mainland United States · State of the United StatesDataset status Inferredconfidence: Inferred. Backed by an official source but not yet certified by a human reviewer.Last checked 2026-10-06 Recently checkedfreshness: Recently checked. Sources were last re-read 6 days ago, well inside the 180-day window. Recent is not reviewed — this page is still an unreviewed draft.

Evidence

Import permit

Permit

Not required^[8,5]

What it costs

No fee is published, because no entry permit is required for a dog or a cat. Reg. 27-1013 demands a State Veterinarian entry permit only for swine (D.5.A) and for wild, feral or exotic animals (D.6.C); the canine/feline paragraph at D.1 requires none, and the State Veterinarian's dog/cat import page lists only a CVI and proof of rabies vaccination. Note this cuts the other way for an unusual animal aboard: a ferret is covered by the same LPH page, but anything the State Veterinarian classes as exotic needs a permit before it moves.confidence: Inferred. Backed by an official source but not yet certified by a human reviewer.^[8,5]

Email: mneault@clemson.edu
Phone: +1 803 788 2260
Official page: https://www.clemson.edu/public/lph/ahp/import/canine-feline-ferret.html

Rabies

Vaccination

Required^[5,8,9]

Min. age at vaccination

Not documented. No South Carolina instrument states a minimum age for rabies vaccination of a dog or cat entering the state.

Min. before travel

Not documented. Nothing in Title 47 or Reg. 27-1013 requires any interval between vaccination and entry — no "at least 21 days" or 30-day rule of the kind many Caribbean jurisdictions impose. Recorded as undocumented, not as zero-by-right.

Max. before travel

365 days (TWO OFFICIAL SOURCES DISAGREE, AND THE DIFFERENCE DECIDES WHETHER A DOG ON A THREE-YEAR VACCINE IS COMPLIANT. The promulgated regulation is a hard 12-month rule: Reg. 27-1013(D)(1) says a CVI "shall not be issued, if ... (c) the canine/feline has not been vaccinated against rabies in the past 12 months", and Reg. 27-1018 independently requires a dog to have been "vaccinated against rabies and identified by proper identification tag and certificate not more than twelve (12) months prior to shipment". TWO regulations, the same twelve months, for entry. The State Veterinarian's own import page separately states the Rabies Control Act formula — inoculated "at a frequency to provide continuous protection of the pet from rabies using a vaccine approved by the department and licensed by the United States Department of Agriculture" (§ 47-5-60) — which a current three-year vaccine satisfies on its face. Those two are NOT actually in conflict, and an earlier draft of this file was wrong to grade them as though they were: § 47-5-60 is a standing duty on owners keeping animals IN South Carolina, enforced by a different agency (see booster_rules below), while the twelve-month line is the ENTRY condition. Different subjects. So for a boat arriving, twelve months is the rule, twice stated. A dog boosted 18 months ago on a three-year product may be lawfully kept in South Carolina and still fail the entry regulation. Reg. 27-1013 was last amended in 1998 and the twelve-month line may predate multi-year vaccines, but that is inference, not documentation. Confirm with the State Veterinarian before relying on a three-year vaccine.)^[8,5,10]

Boosters, and what the certificate must show

Two further conditions, and one important distinction about where the rabies wording comes from. (1) ORIGIN CONDITION — AND IT IS WIDER THAN THE CVI RULE ALONE SUGGESTS. Reg. 27-1013(D)(1) bars issue of a CVI if the animal "originated within an area under quarantine for rabies" or "has been exposed to rabies"; the State Veterinarian's page restates this as "Not exposed to or from an area under quarantine for Rabies". But there is a SECOND, DOG-SPECIFIC REGULATION in the same chapter, and it is the one that matters most to a boat arriving from the Caribbean. Reg. 27-1018, "Covering the Shipment of Dogs Into the State": "All dogs to be transported or moved into the state for any purpose shall be admitted only when accompanied by an approved health certificate stating that the dog or dogs did not originate within an area under quarantine for rabies OR AN AREA WHERE RABIES IS KNOWN TO EXIST, EVEN THOUGH NOT QUARANTINED, has not been exposed to rabies, and has been vaccinated against rabies and identified by proper identification tag and certificate not more than twelve (12) months prior to shipment." Read the emphasised words. The bar is not confined to formally quarantined areas: it reaches anywhere rabies is KNOWN TO EXIST, quarantined or not. Much of the Caribbean and Latin America is such a place, and this dataset documents several jurisdictions that say so of themselves. Nothing published names which areas South Carolina counts, so a dog arriving from, say, Colombia, Panama or the Dominican Republic cannot tell from the text whether a certificate can honestly be issued at all. Note also what 27-1018 adds beyond 27-1013: it covers "all dogs… for any purpose" without depending on the livestock definition, it fixes the rabies interval at twelve months independently, and it requires a proper identification TAG as well as a certificate. (2) THE RABIES SENTENCE ON THE IMPORT PAGE IS NOT AN IMPORT RULE. It is § 47-5-60 of the Rabies Control Act quoted verbatim — a standing obligation on every pet owner in South Carolina to keep the animal vaccinated, which says nothing about crossing any border. That matters twice over. First, "the department" in that sentence is NOT Clemson LPH: § 47-5-20(2) defines it as the South Carolina Department of Health and Environmental Control, a separate agency, so the vaccine-approval decision sits outside the animal health authority whose page you are reading. Second, the same section requires the vaccinating veterinarian to issue "a serially numbered metal license tag" that "at all times must be attached to a collar or harness worn by the pet". If the Rabies Control Act is what reaches a visiting animal, the collar tag comes with it — and a foreign-vaccinated dog will not have a South Carolina tag.confidence: Inferred. Backed by an official source but not yet certified by a human reviewer.^[8,10,5]

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

Not yet documented

Required level

Not documented. No South Carolina source mentions a rabies antibody titre of any kind — no threshold, no approved laboratory, no post-draw waiting period. Recorded as undocumented rather than as "not required". Note that the inherited federal layer is where a titre can arise for a boat: CDC imposes serology on a dog that has been in a high-risk rabies country in the previous six months, which is a federal question at the port of entry and has nothing to do with South Carolina.

Veterinary health certificate

Certificate

Required^[5,8,9]

Completed within

30 days ("A certificate is valid for thirty days after the date of the inspection" (§ 47-4-60(C)); the State Veterinarian's dog/cat page states the same window as "CVI - Certificate of Veterinary Inspection (valid for 30 days)". This is a validity period running from inspection, not a fixed window before departure — so on a long passage the question is whether the certificate is still inside its 30 days when the boat ties up, which nothing addresses for a sea arrival.)^[5,9]

Gov. endorsement

Required^[9]

Form: Certificate of Veterinary Inspection (CVI). Per Reg. 27-1011(B) it must, in addition to the statutory contents of § 47-4-60(B), list all applicable permit numbers and their date of issue, the name of the issuing agency, and the farm or other location the animal came from. For a dog or cat the CVI "must be accompanied by a rabies vaccination certificate, which properly identifies the animal" (Reg. 27-1013(D)(1))., Health Permit (HP) — an alternative named in Reg. 27-1013(B), but a narrow one, and not a convenience route. Reg. 27-1011(C): HPs "shall not be employed as substitutes or in lieu of CVIs, but shall be issued as temporary measures only in emergency situations or under circumstances which could not have been reasonably foreseen". They expire no more than 30 days after issue and may not be renewed. Whether an unplanned foreign landfall counts as such a circumstance is not addressed; the State Veterinarian authorises them at his discretion.

Arriving by sea

NONE PUBLISHED at state level — and this is the file's central unresolved point, not a reassurance. The federal layer is not silent, and for some dogs it is decisive: a dog vaccinated outside the United States that has been in a high-risk country in the last six months cannot be landed at any US seaport, since CDC admits it only "at a U.S. airport with a CDC-registered animal care facility" — see the warning at the top of this page. No South Carolina statute, regulation or LPH page addresses an animal arriving from a foreign country, by sea or otherwise, and none addresses a private yacht. The requirement is written origin-neutrally ("upon importation into the state", "entering this State"), and the enabling statute § 47-4-30(A) expressly reaches importation "from a state, territory, or foreign country" — so there is no textual exemption to point at. But the certificate's own mandatory contents assume a US origin: § 47-4-60(B)(7) requires "approval by the livestock-poultry health authority of the state of origin", which a foreign country does not have, and (C) requires a copy be forwarded to the commission "before departure of the consignment". A cruiser arriving at Charleston from Nassau therefore cannot comply with the CVI as literally specified, and nothing published says what is expected instead. Do not read that as a waiver. Ask the State Veterinarian's office before you sail.confidence: Inferred. Backed by an official source but not yet certified by a human reviewer.^[9,8,5,4]

What the certificate must say

"CVI - Certificate of Veterinary Inspection (valid for 30 days). Proof of rabies vaccination - A pet owner must have his pet inoculated against rabies at a frequency to provide continuous protection of the pet from rabies using a vaccine approved by the department and licensed by the United States Department of Agriculture. Not exposed to or from an area under quarantine for Rabies." (Clemson University Livestock Poultry Health, "Canine and Feline (Dog/Cat) and Ferret Import Requirements")confidence: Inferred. Backed by an official source but not yet certified by a human reviewer.^[5,8]

Parasite treatment

Internal

None required. No South Carolina statute, regulation or LPH page imposes an internal parasite treatment on a dog or cat entering the state.confidence: Inferred. Backed by an official source but not yet certified by a human reviewer.^[8,5]

External

None required. No South Carolina statute, regulation or LPH page imposes an external parasite treatment on a dog or cat entering the state. Chapter 27 does carry tick and scabies import provisions, but they are addressed to cattle, sheep and goats, not to pets.confidence: Inferred. Backed by an official source but not yet certified by a human reviewer.^[8,5]

Worth reading against where you are coming from: several Caribbean jurisdictions require tick and worm treatment within a fixed window before departure and want it written on the certificate, so an animal that is compliant for a passage south will be more than compliant on the way back. Recorded because the absence is genuinely useful when planning a route, but it is an absence of any published requirement, not a documented exemption.^[8,5]

Identification

Microchip

Required^[2,4]

Standard

Any brand, but it must be detectable with a universal scanner. CDC names no ISO standard and no digit count.^[4]

CDC requires dogs entering the United States to be microchipped, and the chip number must appear on any accompanying rabies documentation. A territory may accept a collar tag for its own local rule, but that does not replace the federal microchip requirement for a dog arriving from abroad.^[2,4]

"If your dog's microchip number starts with a number other than 9, be sure to check with your veterinarian that it is readable. If the microchip cannot be scanned on arrival for a dog that has been in a high-risk country, the dog may be denied entry and returned to the country of departure at the importer's expense."^[4]

South Carolina imposes NO microchip requirement of its own. Reg. 27-1013(D)(1) asks only that the rabies vaccination certificate accompanying the CVI "properly identifies the animal", without saying how, and § 47-4-60(B)(3) requires "permanent identification including, but not limited to, tag, tattoo, brand, leg band, registration name, or number" — a list written for livestock that does not name a microchip at all. The state's own identifying mark for a pet is instead the metal rabies licence tag on a collar or harness required by § 47-5-60. NONE OF THAT DISPLACES THE INHERITED FEDERAL RULE: CDC requires a dog entering the United States from abroad to be microchipped, with the chip number on the accompanying rabies documentation. For a boat arriving at Charleston from a foreign port the microchip is required by the federal layer whatever South Carolina does or does not ask for, so chip the animal.^[8,9,10,2]

Animals & vaccinations

Dogs

Min. age

South Carolina itself sets NO minimum age for a dog entering the state. But note the separate, inherited CDC minimum of 6 months for a dog arriving into the United States from a foreign port — on a passage from the Bahamas or the Caribbean that federal floor is the one that bites, and it applies regardless of South Carolina's silence.

Vaccinesconfidence: Inferred. Backed by an official source but not yet certified by a human reviewer.^[5,8]

Rabies (required)

Cats

Min. age

South Carolina sets NO minimum age for a cat entering the state. Neither Reg. 27-1013 nor the State Veterinarian's import page states one, and no age appears in Title 47. Recorded as undocumented rather than as "no limit" — the absence of a stated age is not the same as an authority confirming none applies.

Vaccinesconfidence: Inferred. Backed by an official source but not yet certified by a human reviewer.^[5,8]

Rabies (required)

Other health requirements

Note

CDC governs dogs specifically; it does not impose an equivalent federal import form on cats. Cats are governed by the inheriting jurisdiction's own requirements plus a general healthy-on-arrival expectation — and note that for a US STATE those requirements may be drafted for interstate movement and may not reach a foreign arrival at all. See the state files for how each one resolves that.

Dogs: CDC Dog Import Form — required for every dog entering the United States, including a US-vaccinated dog returning home. Submitted online before travel; carry the receipt.confidence: Inferred. Backed by an official source but not yet certified by a human reviewer.^[4]
Dogs must be at least 6 months old.confidence: Inferred. Backed by an official source but not yet certified by a human reviewer.^[4,2]
Dogs must appear healthy on arrival.confidence: Inferred. Backed by an official source but not yet certified by a human reviewer.^[4]
Dogs that have been in a high-risk rabies country in the previous 6 months face additional requirements: a rabies serology/titer and, in some cases, a CDC import permit. Which countries those are is not a judgement call — see the note below for CDC's list and the eight destinations on this site that are on it.confidence: Inferred. Backed by an official source but not yet certified by a human reviewer.^[4,3]
SCREWWORM CERTIFICATE — USDA/APHIS, and separate from anything CDC asks for. 9 CFR 93.600(a): "Dogs from any region of the world where screwworm is considered to exist may only be imported into the United States if they meet the requirements of paragraphs (a)(1) and (2)". Those are: "(1) Dogs must be accompanied by a certificate signed by a full-time salaried veterinary official of the region of origin stating that the dog has been inspected for screwworm within 5 days preceding its shipment to the United States" and "(2) The certificate must state that the dog is either free from screwworm or was found to be infested with screwworm and was held in quarantine and treated until free from screwworm prior to leaving the region of origin." READ THAT AS A CRUISER: it is not your own vet's certificate, it is a GOVERNMENT veterinary official's, it must be within FIVE DAYS of departure, and on many islands finding a full-time salaried government vet at short notice is the hard part. APHIS maintains the list of affected regions at aphis.usda.gov (Animal Health Status of Regions) and changes it by administrative action, so check it against your actual last port rather than assuming — this dataset does not reproduce the list. Cats are not covered: subpart F is headed "Dogs". The quoted paragraphs have been checked against the regulation: subpart F is now held in this repository, fetched from the eCFR XML API, and both quotes above appear in it verbatim.confidence: Inferred. Backed by an official source but not yet certified by a human reviewer.^[1]

THE DOMINICAN REPUBLIC IS HIGH RISK, AND THIS FILE SAID OTHERWISE UNTIL 2026-10-03. CDC's list is headed "These countries and political units are considered high risk for importing dog rabies into the United States" and it names the Dominican Republic. Eight destinations on this site are on that list: Belize, Colombia, the Dominican Republic, Guatemala, Guyana, Honduras, Suriname and Venezuela. The Bahamas, Turks & Caicos and the BVI are not on it, and neither is Nicaragua. US territories are not foreign countries for this purpose. The claim this replaces grouped the Dominican Republic with the not-high-risk islands and told a cruiser returning from there that the titer "does not normally apply" — it does, and a US-vaccinated dog also needs the Certification of U.S.-issued Rabies Vaccination form endorsed before it leaves the United States, which cannot be arranged afterwards.^[3]

Sources

1
9 CFR 93.600, Importation of dogs — subpart F. Paragraph (a) carries the screwworm certificate requirement; paragraph (b) the tapeworm inspection for livestock-handling dogs. Text read from the 2026 annual edition. — United States — Code of Federal Regulations, Title 9 (Animals and Animal Products), APHIS/USDA
legalAccessed 2026-08-13no archive yet
2
Bringing a Dog into the United States — US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)
healthAccessed 2026-08-10archived copy
3
High-Risk Countries for Dog Rabies — US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)
healthAccessed 2026-10-03no archive yet
4
Frequently Asked Questions on Dog Importations — US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)
healthAccessed 2026-08-22archived copy
5
Canine and Feline (Dog/Cat) and Ferret Import Requirements — Clemson University Livestock Poultry Health, Animal Health Programs (Office of the South Carolina State Veterinarian)
veterinary authorityAccessed 2026-08-13archived copy
6
South Carolina Animal Import Requirements — Clemson University Livestock Poultry Health, Animal Health Programs
veterinary authorityAccessed 2026-08-13archived copy
7
Contact Us — Clemson Livestock Poultry Health (State Veterinarian and Director, Mike Neault DVM) — Clemson University Livestock Poultry Health, Animal Health Programs
veterinary authorityAccessed 2026-08-13archived copy
8
S.C. Code of Regulations, Chapter 27 (Clemson University) — Regulation 27-1013, Importation of Livestock (canines/felines at D.1); Regulation 27-1018, Covering the Shipment of Dogs Into the State; with Regulation 27-1010 (General/Definitions), Regulation 27-1011 (Diseases and Health Documentation, CVI and Health Permit terms) and Regulation 27-1012(G) (return aboard the same carrier). 27-1013 last amended by State Register Volume 22, Issue No. 5, effective 22 May 1998. — South Carolina Legislature (Legislative Services Agency) — official publication of the South Carolina Code of Regulations
legalAccessed 2026-08-13archived copy
9
Title 47, Chapter 4 — State Livestock-Poultry Health Commission. Cited for § 47-4-10 (Clemson Board of Trustees membership), § 47-4-20 (definitions of livestock, Director and State Veterinarian), § 47-4-30(A) (power over importation from a state, territory or foreign country), § 47-4-60 (certificate of veterinary inspection, contents, 30-day validity, quarantine of uncertified animals), § 47-4-70 (quarantine and abandonment) and § 47-4-90 (roadside document checks). — South Carolina Legislature — S.C. Code of Laws (1976, as amended)
legalAccessed 2026-08-13archived copy
10
Title 47, Chapter 5 — Rabies Control Act. Cited for § 47-5-20 (definitions, including "Department" as DHEC and "Pet" as domesticated cats, dogs and ferrets) and § 47-5-60 (continuous-protection inoculation duty, rabies certificate and metal licence tag) — the source of the rabies wording reproduced on the State Veterinarian's import page. — South Carolina Legislature — S.C. Code of Laws (1976, as amended)
legalAccessed 2026-08-13archived copy
11
Bringing Pets and Wildlife into the United States — US Customs and Border Protection (CBP)
customsAccessed 2026-08-13archived copy

Last checked October 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