OBSOLETE COVID THREAD New Schengen Rules Feb 1 2022

[BombayBill]

Here are some recently published proposed Schengen regulations regarding Covid

Official: EU to Introduce New Individual-Based Travel Restrictions From February 1 - SchengenVisaInfo.com

Starting from February 1, the European Union Member States are advised to remove the current restrictions, which are based on the COVID-19 situation on the traveller’s country of departure and replace them with restrictions based on the traveller’s situation. On Tuesday, January 25, the EU...

www.schengenvisainfo.com

 

[C clearly]

These don't seem to be changes to regulations of the member states, yet. @Kathar1na should be along soon to explain!

 

[trecile]

I'd be interested in reading the information on an official government site.

I'm also hoping that there will be a way for those from the US and other countries without EU Digital Covid Certificates to convert their Covid vaccination certificates to an acceptable digital format to travel in the EU.

“This means that a traveller’s COVID-19 vaccination, test or recovery status, as evidenced by a valid EU digital COVID certificate, should be the key determinant.

 

[BombayBill]

So after reading these proposed changes I am worried about the changes.

In 2021 I did the CF while using a French QR certificate issued against my Canadian vaccination record. If I read the proposed regs correctly it appears my 2 shots and December 2021 booster will not be enough as they will be 270 days old when I plan to travel in 2022.

How do the other armchair lawyers interpret this?

 

[kirkie]

Select a suitable date for yet another booster...from my perch on a kitchen chair, not a sign of lawyer's wig around.

 

[Molly Cassidy]

These don't seem to be changes to regulations of the member states, yet. @Kathar1na should be along soon to explain!

I think it will continue to be the case that every country will make its own rules and these will change whenever they see fit to change them.

 

[Kathar1na]

These don't seem to be changes to regulations of the member states, yet. @Kathar1na should be along soon to explain!

. I guess I have a reputation to lose so a quick reply:

@C clearly:​

Correct. No changes yet as a direct result of the adoption.​

@trecile:​

An EU Recommendation was indeed adopted yesterday by the EU, agreed by and addressed to the governments of the 27 EU countries. A draft had been published in November. So no big surprise. Link: https://www.consilium.europa.eu/en/...recommendation-on-free-movement-restrictions/​

@BombayBill:​

Don't worry.​

​

First of all, this is about travel within the EU/Schengen zone, not into the Schengen zone.​

​

The Recommendation does not say anything at all about the validity of booster jabs. The 270 days refer to the jabs of the primary vaccination (2 jabs for Pfizer for example). There is an explicit reference in the Recommendation in Consideration 17: .... for the purpose of travel, certificates indicating the completion of the primary vaccination series shall be accepted only if not more than 270 days have passed since the date of the latest dose in that series. As it was not yet possible to determine an acceptance period for certificates indicating the administration of booster doses, the Delegated Regulation noted that no acceptance period should, at this stage, apply to certificates indicating the administration of a booster dose.​

​

The French QR codes issued to US tourists and other non-EU tourists last year during an online conversion campaign, are, or may be, already no longer valid within France. You'd need to check. France had changed their regulation already before this EU Recommendation had been adopted.​

The article is published on the Schengenvisainfo.com website. They usually get their info right but it is a commercial site, not an official EU website. They use a lot of words for the information they provide. IMHO.

 

[Kathar1na]

I'm also hoping that there will be a way for those from the US and other countries without EU Digital Covid Certificates to convert their Covid vaccination certificates to an acceptable digital format to travel in the EU.

This is not addressed at all in the Recommendation.

The Recommendation is for people who have the right of free movement within the EU which, generally, means EU citizens living anywhere in the world and people of any nationality living in the EU. The Recommendation is, generally again, for people who got vaccinated in the EU and received their EU Digital Covid Certificates on that basis.

Personally, I doubt that a conversion of non-EU paper based certificates will ever be addressed at EU level. Individual EU countries can apparently arrange for such a conversion but it is up to them. At EU level, they have a procedure for recognition of equivalency for non-EU digital Covid certificates. A number of foreign countries have joined this system, among them Israel, New Zealand, the United Kingdom, and Turkey. No conversion necessary for people who got vaccinated in these countries and who received their certificates there.

You might as well hope that your own country joins the EU DCC system . They will welcome any such country with open arms provided that they fulfill the EU DCC technical and other specifications.

 

[trecile]

You might as well hope that your own country joins the EU DCC system .

That would be ideal!

 

[dreaminggypsy]

I am reading this forum, often and closely, to figure out if we are going to walk the Camino Portugues'-as planned for three years now-(We were originally booked to fly out in April of 2020.)-leaving at the end of this March 2022. We have chosen to remain unvaccinated for myriad personal reasons and have remained COVID free-and, we test every time we travel. (Close family and friends who have been vaccinated have caught COVID and we have not--even after being with them. We believe we are immune. That is another story.)

I find this hopeful for us--if we test--and, we always do.

Perhaps I am not understanding but it reads to me as if we, traveling in from the USA, can enter if we test negative. We plan on starting in Porto. Spain? I am not sure we can enter, as of yet.

Watching and waiting to see if we need to reschedule or pack...soon.

Thanks to Ivar for this site and to all the Pilgrims who contribute-it is immensely helpful.

Be well and be sweet.

 

[Kathar1na]

Perhaps I am not understanding but it reads to me as if we, traveling in from the USA, can enter if we test negative. We plan on starting in Porto. Spain? I am not sure we can enter, as of yet.

This new EU Recommendation says absolutely nothing about whether or not you can enter Portugal or Spain on a flight from the USA in the context of Covid-19 restrictions.

You need to consult the rules of each of these two countries and for the time when you want to travel.

Currently, the Covid-19 related rules about entry of non-EU travellers are not the same for every one of the 27 EU countries. The general idea is that only vaccinated travellers are allowed in on leisure trips. But a number of countries are doing their own thing. Nobody can tell whether they will have agreed on a common line by April or May and what that line will be.

 

[dreaminggypsy]

Thank you. I understand that. I will keep watching and waiting. It does change, often. Kindly-Tammi Clancy

 

[Kathar1na]

Let me add a general remark: News articles, like the ones on Schengenvisainfo or in mainstream media, are often accurate in the sense that they are just a rewrite of a press release from the EU (Council or Commission).

However, in their attempt to rewrite the text in a simpler and non-legalese form, they omit context.

I often notice that these news articles refer to "all travellers" or "from other countries" but they omit that the EU texts define very clearly that they don't refer to all travellers in the world but, for example, to all travellers travelling within the EU only or to all non-EU travellers travelling into the EU only. Same with "other countries" which will refer to other EU countries or to other non-EU countries and usually just to one of the two categories. The news articles are less precise, hence this frequent confusion and these misunderstandings among their readers.

 

[BombayBill]

@Kathar1na this is why we anxiously await your incisive analysis before making travel decisions. Fools like me think my Camino passport is all I need to flit from one place to another.

 

[BookGirl305]

as frequently as the various regulations and recommendations and suggestions and whatevers change, just work backward. Take your departure date, work back 30 days before and decide what you need to do to meet that specific requirement at that time.

 

[dreaminggypsy]

as frequently as the various regulations and recommendations and suggestions and whatevers change, just work backward. Take your departure date, work back 30 days before and decide what you need to do to meet that specific requirement at that time.

Yes. That is our plan and a possible reschedule for Fall.

 

[SeñorJacques]

I'm also hoping that there will be a way for those from the US and other countries without EU Digital Covid Certificates to convert their Covid vaccination certificates to an acceptable digital format to travel in the EU.

This is tangental to the current thread - and may merit its own regardless - but there's an article in the New York Times today about what happens when we here in the U.S. lose our physical vaccination cards and need to show proof of vaccination somewhere:

What to Do if You’ve Lost Your Covid-19 Vaccination Card

It never quite fit in your wallet, so it’s no surprise you may have misplaced it by now.

www.nytimes.com

I'm fortunate to live in a state (Louisiana) that has a digital record system so I don't generally carry my card with me - but am wondering if I will need it when I travel to France and Spain this spring, or whether the QR code in both my state app + Apple Wallet will suffice.

In any case - thanks to @BombayBill for sharing this news, and to @Kathar1na for making it more intelligible for us!

 

[trecile]

I'm fortunate to live in a state (Louisiana) that has a digital record system so I don't generally carry my card with me - but am wondering if I will need it when I travel to France and Spain this spring, or whether the QR code in both my state app + Apple Wallet will suffice

Probably not. In another thread @Kathar1na linked to a couple of apps that are used in Europe to read the QR codes on the EU digital certificates. I downloaded a couple of them, and they couldn't read the QR code that I have from my health care provider. The format wasn't compatible.

 

[SeñorJacques]

Probably not. In another thread @Kathar1na linked to a couple of apps that are used in Europe to read the QR codes on the EU digital certificates. I downloaded a couple of them, and they couldn't read the QR code that I have from my health care provider. The format wasn't compatible.

Why does this not surprise me in the least? I knew it sounded too easy. Thanks!

 

[JabbaPapa]

These don't seem to be changes to regulations of the member states, yet. @Kathar1na should be along soon to explain!

These are a basic standard across the EU, but individual Member States can in the matter of these measures, instate their own measures outside this sort of baseline, whether more permissive or restrictive, particularly with regard to such third countries as the UK or USA etc.

Each Member State remains sovereign in its border controls, albeit that residents or nationals of any EU/Schengen Member State possess a right of entry by principle into any EU/Schengen State, which extends to a distributed right of entry for any already legally within the EU/Schengen Area, regardless their nationality, to cross the internal borders between Member States.

 

[Molly Cassidy]

It's also worth bearing in mind that if case numbers are very high, it may be very difficult to get a test (and results) in the right timescale for your flight. In many countries people who are ill/close contacts are struggling to get tests.

 

[TrvlDad1]

Well, this is all quite interesting, but I’m still booked ATL-MAD on March 11 and hoping for a negotiable process. Much can change by then.

 

[jalluisi]

Thanks for sharing. We are hoping to travel in October 2022 from Porto.

 

[Hans-Georg Goebel]

Here are some recently published proposed Schengen regulations regarding Covid

Official: EU to Introduce New Individual-Based Travel Restrictions From February 1 - SchengenVisaInfo.com

Starting from February 1, the European Union Member States are advised to remove the current restrictions, which are based on the COVID-19 situation on the traveller’s country of departure and replace them with restrictions based on the traveller’s situation. On Tuesday, January 25, the EU...

www.schengenvisainfo.com

I think for pilgrims who want to walk in April, it's all just speculation or reading coffee sentences at the moment. The regulations in force change almost every day. No one can even begin to say what will apply in 3 months. I know this is difficult and unsatisfactory for pilgrims from overseas.

 

[dbarlow]

I am reading this forum, often and closely, to figure out if we are going to walk the Camino Portugues'-as planned for three years now-(We were originally booked to fly out in April of 2020.)-leaving at the end of this March 2022. We have chosen to remain unvaccinated for myriad personal reasons and have remained COVID free-and, we test every time we travel. (Close family and friends who have been vaccinated have caught COVID and we have not--even after being with them. We believe we are immune. That is another story.)

I find this hopeful for us--if we test--and, we always do.

Perhaps I am not understanding but it reads to me as if we, traveling in from the USA, can enter if we test negative. We plan on starting in Porto. Spain? I am not sure we can enter, as of yet.

Watching and waiting to see if we need to reschedule or pack...soon.

Thanks to Ivar for this site and to all the Pilgrims who contribute-it is immensely helpful.

Be well and be sweet.

I just finished the Camino Frances yesterday and just so you know, in Spain I was asked for my vaccination card at every hotel, restaurant, and albergue in the last 2 weeks. I was told by one of the hotels that if I wasn’t vaccinated, I could only stay if I went to get a PCR test. I don’t know if this is everywhere. In Madrid now and haven’t been asked, but on the Camino I was.

 

[BombayBill]

In 2021 it was equally uncertain but I got there in the end and had a wonderful time. Older Pilgrims might remember the comforting phrase we used in distant contentious times “how I learned to relax and love the Bomb” ….especially Peter Sellers fans.

 

[Kathar1na]

I just finished the Camino Frances yesterday and just so you know, in Spain I was asked for my vaccination card at every hotel, restaurant, and albergue in the last 2 weeks. I was told by one of the hotels that if I wasn’t vaccinated, I could only stay if I went to get a PCR test. I don’t know if this is everywhere. In Madrid now and haven’t been asked, but on the Camino I was.

For info. In Roncesvalles, Albergue de Peregrinos: