How to travel across Europe and present a Covid vaccine pass no matter where you are.
This might help you to work things through if you are going to be in Europe (not UK) any time in the near future. NOTE I know this works for USA residents only. It may work for other countries where the vaccine you have has been approved for use in the EU. NOTE – I know this does work for Pfizer. According to the EU website a further 6 vaccines are approved these include the other 2 USA ones: Moderna and J&J. https://ec.europa.eu/info/live-work-travel-eu/coronavirus-response/safe-covid-19-vaccines-europeans_en
The background is that the EU has – as some of you already know – a common standard for vaccination certificates. How one get’s the certificate and that process has value for US based travellers. Unlike other countries Germany insists on using a single certificate for each administered injection. Several countries in Europe also permit the cross over of one vaccination form in one country for another. And this is where it gets interesting. With each individual vaccination certificate this has value. They can be loaded onto different covid apps. That may sound a little weird but bear with me. While ANY EU country will accept another country’s certificates – it is useful to have more than one country version. That is because they are all a little different.
Back to my 3 certificates. I already had a Pass Sanitaire from France. https://www.diplomatie.gouv.fr/en/coming-to-france/coming-to-france-your-covid-19-questions-answered/procedure-for-non-european-nationals-to-obtain-a-valid-covid-certificate-in/ However after about 8 months the Pass goes inactive. I was able to load it back up with the 3rd (of 3) certificates that I now had from Germany. https://www.digitaler-impfnachweis-app.de/en/ BUT – in Spain and Gibraltar the paper version was still working. The app however would work again until I topped up the certificate into the Pass.
Cut to the chase… how to go about doing this?
- I highly recommend you getting a yellow Vaccination Card from Amazon. Then the next time you get a vaccination make sure that the person who administers it signs both the US standard card and the Internationally recognized CDC/WHO Yellow form. I have had one since the first vaccine and thus I have all 3 of mine loaded and signed off.
- Make sure you have signed up for the 2 apps I know work - CovPass (Germany) and the Pass Sanitaire (France).
- Once you arrive in Germany, go straight to a Pharmacy – larger ones usually will do this. Not every Pharmacy has access to the system.
- Present your Yellow Card (or the USA Card) and your passport.
- Ask the Pharmacy to issue you with a certificate for each of the vaccines you have received. Make sure they issue you with a piece of paper as well as sending you the email.
- Now open the German CovPass app. And load in each of the vaccine certificates.
- Now open the French Pass Sanitaire app. And load in each of the vaccine certificates.
Note that there are some other countries who accept the European certificates. Singapore is one. The same process may work in other countries. I suggest you check with a friend in that country.
The reason I like the German version is that they issue one vaccination certificate for each time you are jabbed.
Happy Travels.
