diff --git a/c/src/main/java/org/apache/arrow/c/ArrayImporter.java b/c/src/main/java/org/apache/arrow/c/ArrayImporter.java
index f31a8a1faa..7c1cfca4f7 100644
--- a/c/src/main/java/org/apache/arrow/c/ArrayImporter.java
+++ b/c/src/main/java/org/apache/arrow/c/ArrayImporter.java
@@ -53,6 +53,10 @@ final class ArrayImporter {
   void importArray(ArrowArray src) {
     ArrowArray.Snapshot snapshot = src.snapshot();
     checkState(snapshot.release != NULL, "Cannot import released ArrowArray");
+    checkState(
+        snapshot.offset == 0,
+        "ArrowArray struct has non-zero offset (%s), which is not supported",
+        snapshot.offset);
 
     // Move imported array
     ArrowArray ownedArray = ArrowArray.allocateNew(allocator);
diff --git a/c/src/main/java/org/apache/arrow/c/Data.java b/c/src/main/java/org/apache/arrow/c/Data.java
index f9d2ee4542..d870b5884d 100644
--- a/c/src/main/java/org/apache/arrow/c/Data.java
+++ b/c/src/main/java/org/apache/arrow/c/Data.java
@@ -35,7 +35,8 @@
 /**
  * Functions for working with the C data interface.
  *
- * <p>This API is EXPERIMENTAL. Note that currently only 64bit systems are supported.
+ * <p>This API is EXPERIMENTAL. Note that currently only 64bit systems are supported. Importing
+ * {@link ArrowArray ArrowArrays} with a non-zero offset is not supported.
  */
 public final class Data {
 
diff --git a/c/src/test/java/org/apache/arrow/c/RoundtripTest.java b/c/src/test/java/org/apache/arrow/c/RoundtripTest.java
index f6ff88571e..efdf580aeb 100644
--- a/c/src/test/java/org/apache/arrow/c/RoundtripTest.java
+++ b/c/src/test/java/org/apache/arrow/c/RoundtripTest.java
@@ -1051,6 +1051,27 @@ public void testImportReleasedArray() {
     }
   }
 
+  @Test
+  public void testImportArrayWithNonZeroOffset() {
+    try (IntVector source = new IntVector("source", allocator);
+        IntVector destination = new IntVector("destination", allocator);
+        ArrowArray array = ArrowArray.allocateNew(allocator)) {
+      setVector(source, 1, 2, 3);
+      Data.exportVector(allocator, source, null, array);
+
+      ArrowArray.Snapshot snapshot = array.snapshot();
+      snapshot.offset = 1;
+      array.save(snapshot);
+
+      Exception e =
+          assertThrows(
+              IllegalStateException.class,
+              () -> Data.importIntoVector(allocator, array, destination, null));
+      assertEquals(
+          "ArrowArray struct has non-zero offset (1), which is not supported", e.getMessage());
+    }
+  }
+
   @Test
   public void testArrayStructReuse() {
     // Consumer allocates empty structures
diff --git a/docs/source/cdata.rst b/docs/source/cdata.rst
index 7b2924d259..d2b5ab0cc3 100644
--- a/docs/source/cdata.rst
+++ b/docs/source/cdata.rst
@@ -22,6 +22,11 @@ C Data Interface
 Arrow supports exchanging data without copying or serialization within the same process
 through :external+arrow:ref:`c-data-interface`, even between different language runtimes.
 
+.. note::
+
+   The Arrow Java C Data Interface implementation does not support importing arrays with
+   a non-zero offset.
+
 Java to Python
 --------------