No more than 10 days must pass between the issuing of the International Health Certificate and your pet's arrival in Brazil. It is a very tight schedule, but it can be done.
You will need to do two things within those 10 days (while getting yourself ready to travel):
- Take your pet to his veterinarian and obtain the International Health Certificate
- Take the Certificate to the United States Department of Agrigulture's Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) veterinarian closest to you. The APHIS veterinarian will validate the International Health Certificate.
It used to be necessary to have the the original International Health Certificate, signed by the APHIS veterinarian, legalized at the Brazilian Consulate in your area. That step is no longer necessary, except for a few countries. Find out which countries still need consular legalization of the International Health Certificate for Brazil Travel in this step.
There aren't many APHIS-accredited offices. In the next step, you will learn how to locate them and what you need to get your paperwork done quickly.
Try to plan your schedule so that you can either mail in the International Health Certificate or drive to the APHIS office on the same day you obtain it. That would save you precious time, since APHIS offices are only open on business days, while the International Health Certificate will expire after 10 consecutive days.
