Einreise mit Tier: Amerikanisch-Samoa (2026)

Official sources

• American Samoa's rule is a prohibition with a short list of exceptions — ASAC Title 24 Ch.03 §24.0317 opens "Importation of dogs or cats into American Samoa is strictly prohibited"
• Flying a pet in needs the Governor's signature. §24.0314 states: "No animals, either domestic or otherwise, shall be imported or brought into American Samoa by airplane, except that they may be imported by that means when the importer has received prior permission in writing from the Governor to do so and only when the importer complies with all other requirements." This is in addition to the Department of Agriculture import permit, not instead of it

Key points

• Start here: most pets cannot come
• Entry is permitted only from Hawaii, New Zealand and Australia (named as rabies-free areas), and from the continental United States, Guam and the Pacific Island Trust Territories
• Samoa is a separate case decided by the Director of Agriculture at the time
• If you are coming from anywhere else — including the EU, the UK, Canada or Japan — there is no paperwork that fixes it
• Coming from the mainland US, Guam or the Trust Territories? Your pet does not fly straight here
• The same section attaches "mandatory quarantine in the state of Hawaii for a period to be determined by the department of agriculture"
• That is a quarantine in a third place, before American Samoa, and it is the single most expensive thing to discover late
• Confirm the current period with both the American Samoa Department of Agriculture and Hawaii's Animal Quarantine Branch before you book
• Pets from Hawaii, New Zealand and Australia do not carry this condition
• The permit and the papers
• The import permit comes from the Department of Agriculture and is shown to the quarantine officer on arrival; "The import permit fee for all domestic animals shall be $2 per permit." It names your port, and "Animals will not be eligible for entry if shipped from any foreign port other than that designated in the permit" — so a re-routed flight can invalidate it
• Your vet certificate must come from a salaried government veterinary officer of the place of origin and state that "the animal has been given a prophylactic dose of antirabies vaccine no later than 30 days prior to date of arrival at the port of entry" — counted to ARRIVAL, not to departure
• What happens at the port
• Every animal is inspected on arrival. §24.0311 is blunt about failure: "Animals found to be affected with a contagious disease or to have been exposed thereto shall be refused entry and unless returned to the country of origin, shall be destroyed." Treat the inspection as the real gate, and arrive with complete papers
• Arriving by yacht, or just passing through: "It is illegal to maintain any animal or bird aboard any vessel or aircraft in American Samoa for more than 48 hours" (§24.0319)
• After 48 hours the animal must leave, the vessel must leave, or a bond approved by the Department of Agriculture must be in place; an animal found off the vessel may be destroyed and the bond forfeited
• Other pets are not admitted at all. §24.0318 prohibits "miscellaneous pets such as lizards, snakes, turtles, frogs, tropical fish, parrots, cage birds, monkey, hamsters, rabbits, and similar animals which are regarded as pets"
• The Director decides anything not on that list, so ask before assuming
• These rules are American Samoa's own, made under its Plant and Animal Quarantine Regulations, and they are stricter than the US federal CDC and APHIS rules you may have read for travel to the mainland
• Where they differ, American Samoa's apply
• The code is not the whole rule book, and it says so. §24.0317(4): "the director of agriculture shall, due to the unique and delicate nature of disease control on a small island, propagate from time to time and as he sees fit, terms and conditions of entry into American Samoa of domestic dogs and cats
• The director shall at all times make available to the public a copy of this section and the terms and conditions of entry aforementioned"
• So a second layer of conditions exists that is not published alongside the code, and it can change
• Ask the Department of Agriculture for the terms of entry in force on your travel dates, in writing — the code entitles you to a copy
• Do not plan from this page alone, and do not reuse conditions that applied to someone else's move