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Obtaining Endorsement of International Export Health Certificates with USDA APHIS’s Veterinary Export Health Certification System (VEHCS)

June 30, 2020 — 

On April 20, 2020, USDA APHIS announced the acceptance of electronic signatures on health certificates from USDA Accredited Veterinarians when issued and submitted through VEHCS. This means that you can now issue health certificates in VEHCS for animals traveling to destination countries that previously did not allow VEHCS use (e.g., countries with red banners on the Pet Travel Website and IRegs.) [Source: USDA APHIS]

Not every country is yet accepting USDA APHIS's digital endorsement, but by using VEHCS, you are able to get the health certificate to your "USDA Endorsement Office without spending time and money associated with shipment of hardcopy documents. Additionally, if there's a problem with the health certificate that requires you to issue a revised one, use of VEHCS again saves you and your clients time and money by eliminating the need to ship new hardcopy documents to your USDA Endorsement Office. A huge advantage when time is of the essence.

The VEHCS banner within each destination country's page on the Pet Travel Website and IRegs informs you if VEHCS can be used for submitting the health certificate to USDA APHIS and if USDA APHIS can also digitally endorse the certificate in VEHCS. We recently updated the VEHCS banners to help you better understand the extent to which VEHCS may be used for a health certificate.

When using VEHCS, remember that if the destination country does not accept USDA APHIS's digital endorsement, you will need to provide a pre-paid shipping label to have the endorsed paper health certificate returned to you or you client. For destination countries that do accept USDA APHIS's digital endorsement, you will print the endorsed health certificated from VEHCS to give to your client. An endorsed health certificate must always accompany the animal when traveling to the destination country.

For more information, contact your USDA APHIS Service Center.

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