Do you need a CITES certificate to travel with a musical instrument?


The quick answer is “yes, some­times”. To be on the safe side, any trav­el with a musi­cal instru­ment involv­ing the cross­ing of bor­ders should be care­ful­ly pre­pared. Fol­low­ing the grad­ual strength­en­ing of rules under the Con­ven­tion on Inter­na­tion­al Trade in Endan­gered Species of Wild Fau­na and Flo­ra (CITES) and the increas­ing num­ber of pro­tect­ed species, you may have to apply for a CITES cer­tifi­cate.

The fol­low­ing, short ques­tion­naire will allow you to
– check, accord­ing to your des­ti­na­tion, whether the com­po­si­tion of your instru­ment requires apply­ing for a CITES cer­tifi­cate (MIC or TEC);
– iden­ti­fy steps to be tak­en before your departure.

You will be able to check a box on top of the sum­ma­ry page if you wish to receive the results of this ques­tion­naire by e‑mail.

Per­nam­bu­co bows : bows made of Per­nam­bu­co may cur­rent­ly be car­ried with­out cer­tifi­cate (except from Brazil). Please read our rec­om­men­da­tions care­ful­ly as it is a sen­si­tive matter.