How to get a phytosanitary certificate

How to get one

This is the procedure for sending plants or plant products to another country. State to state, skip to moving between states, which is a different document and a different phone call.

1. 1. Contact your state's export certification specialist

   APHIS keeps export certification specialists nationwide, with one to contact in your state, and its own instructions put this first. They are the people who know what the receiving country asks for, which is the part that decides everything after it.

2. 2. Work with an authorized certification official

   The ACO arranges the inspections the certificate attests to, and applies for the certificate with you. You do not file it yourself.

3. 3. The application goes through PCIT

   The Phytosanitary Certificate Issuance and Tracking system. If a certificate is issued it is available immediately online for you to print — and if you cannot print it, you leave a comment on the application asking for mail, courier or in-person pickup instead.

Two things APHIS says about the system that are worth knowing before you rely on it. Access to PCIT is nationwide but not every location uses it, so check with your local phytosanitary authority before submitting an application through it. And if you are not sure you need a certificate at all, the specialist in step one is who to ask — that is APHIS's own advice, not a hedge of ours.

What it costs

The federal export certificate is $106 for a commercial shipment worth $1,250 or more and $61 below that, or for a non-commercial one. A further $6 PPQ administrative fee applies only when a State or county inspector, rather than a federal one, is the one issuing it through PCIT.

APHIS is explicit that the user fee varies with whichever federal, state or county authority conducts the inspection and issues the certificate, so treat those as the figures to check against your quote rather than a price list. State phytosanitary certificates are a separate matter: states set their own fees for those, and there is no published national figure to quote you.

What it actually is

A certificate saying three things at once: the plants were inspected using the proper procedure, they are considered free of the pests the destination country cares about, and they meet that country's plant health rules. In the US it has a form number, PPQ Form 577, and it comes from USDA APHIS.

Every part of that definition points outward. It exists because the country you are shipping to demands proof, which is why almost everyone searching this term is an exporter and not a person with a monstera.

Three documents people mix up

• Federal phytosanitary certificate (PPQ 577)

  Leaving the country. The one the steps above are for, and the only one of the three with a published price — see what it costs.

• State phytosanitary certificate

  Between states. Issued by a state department of agriculture, not by APHIS, and in APHIS's own words not to be used for international trade. This is the one an interstate move is actually about.

• Nursery stock certificate

  A third thing. It certifies that a nursery was inspected and its stock is clean, rather than certifying one shipment. Several states name this one in their own rules.

If you are moving between states

You cannot get the federal one, and it is worth knowing why rather than just being told no. APHIS's export manual has a table for working out who qualifies, based on where something starts and where it is going, and anything going from the US to somewhere else in the US lands on a single instruction: consider it ineligible, refer the applicant to their state, exit the manual.

So the answer to "how do I get a phytosanitary certificate for my move" is usually: you do not, you ring your state department of agriculture. Whether you need anything at all depends on where you are arriving, because that is the state whose rules apply — which is the rest of this site.

One genuine exception, in case it is yours: a route that crosses into Canada and back, which some northern-tier and Alaska moves do, is eligible for the federal certificate. Leaving the country is leaving the country, even briefly.

The paper a household move usually needs

Often none of the three. The one federal requirement that lands squarely on people moving house is about spongy moth: if you are leaving a quarantined area for somewhere outside it, you have to inspect your household goods and remove any egg masses before you go.

The proof is a checklist you fill in yourself and keep in the vehicle. APHIS calls that completed checklist your official certificate of inspection, and officials can ask for it on the road. No fee, no appointment, no form number.