Emotional support animals (ESAs) are animals that provide comfort to individuals with a psychiatric disability through companionship. However, not every pet that gives solace to their owners can become an ESA. Owners of these animals must first get an emotional support animal letter from a licensed mental health professional.
Once obtained, they can use their ESA letter when needed, such as requesting reasonable accommodation from their housing providers to live with their emotional support animal. However, ESA letters, like drug prescriptions, aren’t always valid indefinitely.
If you’re wondering and asking do ESA letters expire, our article is here to help. Read to the end to find out if you should expect your ESA letter to come with an expiration date, and if so, how to renew it.
Definition of an Emotional Support Animal
Emotional support animals are basically prescribed to an individual with a psychiatric disability by a mental health professional to ease their symptoms. An emotional support animal can be any pet the individual can have in their state, from dogs and cats to more exotic pets like lizards and parrots.
These support animals are different from service animals, which must be dogs trained to perform tasks specifically to help someone with a disability. Emotional support animals comfort their owners simply by existing – they don’t have any training requirements.
Due to the differences in how they assist their owners, the public access rights of service animals under the American With Disabilities Act doesn’t extend to emotional support animals.
Unlike service animals, which have public access rights that permit them to enter places that usually don’t accept pets, such as restaurants and government buildings, ESAs are only recognized by the Fair Housing Act. The Americans With Disabilities Act only covers service animals trained to perform a task directly related to a person’s disability.
Therefore, those with an ESA letter can’t enter public places that don’t allow pets with their emotional support animal. However, they can request their housing provider to make reasonable accommodations to allow their emotional support animal in a no-pet property, such as changing the no-pet clause in the lease or rental agreement.
Do ESA Letters Have an Expiration?
Like most medical documents, emotional support animal letters have an expiration date. If your ESA letter doesn’t have one, it is likely to be illegitimate.
Licensed mental health professionals don’t issue ESA letters indefinitely, as recommending an emotional support animal requires regular visits, like any other prescription, and you may need to obtain a new one before it expires. That said, ESA letters, indeed, do expire.
Can You Renew an Expired ESA Letter?
If your ESA letter is expired, you will need to speak to your mental health worker to write you a new one. Depending on your symptoms and the effects of having an emotional support animal on your condition, your mental health worker will make a decision.
Your mental health worker is likely to renew your ESA letter in most cases if you’ve seen positive changes in your symptoms after having an emotional support animal. A licensed mental health professional may not see the point in renewing the ESA letter of someone who didn’t see progress in their condition after having one.
Therefore, although you technically can renew an ESA letter, the decision ultimately comes down to your mental health worker.
What About ESA Certifications? Do They Expire?
Depending on the registry you’ve registered your emotional support animal with, you may need to renew your ESA certification. While some require renewals every year or so, others don’t.
For example, USServiceAnimals, the biggest registry database for support animals in the US, doesn’t require renewals. All registrations are valid for the animal’s lifetime. USServiceAnimals also provides legal support for the entire duration of the registration.
If you plan to register your ESA with a support animal registry, this should be a consideration, as registries that require renewals typically charge a fee for it.
Your ESA Letter Will Expire but You Can Renew It
Your ESA letter will expire, but you can ask your licensed mental health worker to renew it. Just like visits to a doctor to assess if prescription drugs are helping you, an ESA letter works the same. If your mental health worker decides you will continue to benefit from having an emotional support animal, they will renew your ESA letter.