By: Gabrielle Arciniegas
Uncategorized, , , , , , ,

American traveling to Paris, France. What should you prepare during COVID travel?

En Route! It’s a little bit of work, but you have croissants in mind! 

Hello, my friends! How are you?

Are you feeling all festival with the coming of Christmas and new year? I always feel so happy this time of the year, full of the love of being reunited with family and friends, and all the homemade goodies smell filling the house. I enjoy it! However, before I can fully relax and bake more sugar cookies, I would like to do a brief sharing of the traveling process with you.

We had a week trip to Paris on Nov. 20th. 2021, we are vaccinated travelers from San Diego, California, and have a connection flight via London. All just right before the regulation gets stricter again for Omicron. 

So I highly suggest you follow the CDC website for updated information regarding traveling to Europe. Since every country may have a slightly different approach to travelers. I also highly suggest you check the local government website of the destination you are going to visit.

What should you prepare for traveling to France as an American

How to get a French Health Pass

Here I will also share a process of visiting London, England since England is out of the EU officially. Some details have to be taken care of before landing. 

First, download a Covid doc preparation App that your travel flight company suggested and cooperate with.

We travel by American airline and British airline this time, they recommend passengers download an App called “Verifly”, which comes handy when you are preparing your travel docs. they list the updated version of the requirement. This turned out to be the most useful piece of software/preparation we had.

There are many destination routes in- built on the App, you will need to create a route for the destination, and each connecting flight via non-EU cities, in our case London. 

Once you create a trip, it will lead you step by step, setting up your profile picture, birthday date, flight number, time and date, and the destination airport. Upload the required files and they will approve your pass to valid. This app will help you when you check-in at the airline kiosk, the first thing airline staff ask is to see we have done all the steps this app requires.

Second, Go to the destination country’s travel advisory website. Be sure to read all the Vaccinated traveler’s requirements. For France- https://travel.state.gov/content/travel/en/traveladvisories/traveladvisories/france-travel-advisory.html

Fully vaccinated passengers will need to present the following docs:

  1. A completed ‘Sworn statement (déclaration sur l’honneur)
  2. Proof of your full vaccination (2 doses, and Johnson & Johnson one dose) issued by the government. So far, they are only accepting vaccines authorized by EMA( European Medicines Agency) such as Pfizer, Moderna, AstraZeneca, and Johnson & Johnson. In our case, we bring our PHYSICAL California vaccination certificate ( very important) and also save it in a digital version on our phone health wallet app.

Please remember to print those documents, fill them out and bring them with you before landing. I do not see any place providing these services. 

As I mentioned before that we have a connection flight via London, passengers who have landed in the UK will need to complete the “Passenger locator form”

https://www.gov.uk/provide-journey-contact-details-before-travel-uk

*TIP: Do not create an account on this website to prevent text or phone message authenticated verification once you are in a foreign country. I panicked when I tried to get the verified authentication code in Paris, however, my phone does not support it. If you select not to create an account, you will skip this step! 

Once you fill out the Passenger locator form before arriving, submit the form in 48 hours before boarding, you will get a QR code and PDF file, you can print it out. Presenting both options are valid.

Three, once you land at the airport in France, head out all the documents and you are good to go!

BUT! There is one step you have to do before anything- 

Get a France Health Pass (pass sanitaire)!

You will have to bring your vaccination certificate in paper format (not digital), your passport with you, and 36 euros to the authorized pharmacy. Don’t worry, there are many pharmacies in Paris, almost every 100m there is one, However not everyone provides this service. 

Here is the link for the pharmacies in France that can help you: https://www.sante.fr/recherche/trouver/health%20pass

We tried 3 pharmacies since they have different working hours for this service in a different store, and we happened to do it on a Sunday morning. if you tried one and they turned you down first, don’t feel sad, try another one on the list. Also, don’t be too worried or shy about your French, I noticed that the pharmacies that can provide this service all have friendly staff capable of speaking English. Stay patient (they are often pretty busy), polite, and they will be glad to help you out!

You will get a paper certificate with your personal information and vaccination record in French. there is one of the most important things, the QR code for the following step.

Four, download AntiCovid App, this is an official App France uses to check your Vaccination status. Open the app and scan the QR code, now you have the HEALTH PASS of FRANCE that you can go anywhere! from museums, restaurants, the Palace of Versailles, movie theaters, the first thing before entering indoors, the staff will ask about this pass. 

Five, I would like to note that every passenger who travels to the USA will need a negative COVID test before arrival. It could be a PCR or antigen test. In order to have the negative covid test, you will need to bring your Passport and 25 EU to the pharmacy. Almost every pharmacy provides this test, firstly the staff will ask you to scan a QR code from a France COVID medical association, and you will have to fill out the information then take the COVID test by following the steps. By taking an antigen test, you can get the result in 15 mins, they will send the email for your result.  

I hope sharing this experience can help you prepare for the trips. I only cover vaccinated adult travelers, and I do not recommend unvaccinated people travel in these days and ages. Travel regulations change monthly or weekly so far, so I highly suggest you follow the CDC guideline. 

Let me know if you have questions. 

Stay healthy and happy holidays! 

Keep well,

Gabrielle