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France decided to implement a mandatory proof of vaccination for all residents and travelers yesterday. Starting from July 21st, all museums, cultural venues, and amusement parks required a new health pass to enter.
Today, France has released details on how to obtain a health pass.
The Border Health Pass
The Border Health Pass will require all travelers from Canada and the United States to either present proof of full vaccination, a negative PCR test, or an antigen test within 72 hours of arrival in France.
The Activity Health Pass
Much like the Border Health Pass, the Activity Health Pass is your proof of vaccination, negative PCR test, or antigen test within 48 hours of your chosen event. However, if you’re providing full vaccination on the activity health pass, you’ll need to ensure you had your final vaccine over 14 days ago.
France currently accepts Pfizer, Moderna, AstraZeneca, and Johnson and Johnson. Although France does accept Johnson and Johnson, travelers must wait 4 weeks after their final shot.
If you’re looking to prove that you’ve recovered from COVID-19, you can do this by showing a positive antigen or PCR test taken between 11 days and 6 months ago.
These are the activities that will require a health pass, and quite frankly, traveling to France without heading to these places might be challenging:
- Trains
- Bars
- Nightclubs
- Festivals
- Concert halls
- Stadiums
- Amusement parks
- Theatres
- Cultural venues
- Cafes
Therefore, if you want to travel and enjoy France, there’s currently no way around being fully vaccinated.
How To Get The Health Pass
On August 10th, France released brand new details on how to get the French Health Pass if you’re a resident of a non-EU nation. Travelers will need to have received either Pfizer, Moderna, Johnson & Johnson, or AstraZeneca vaccines outside of the European Union.
It’s essential that travelers apply before they enter France, and if travelers are coming in a large group, all travelers must apply separately. Travelers will need the following documents:
- A vaccination certificate in accordance with the rules of their country
- A valid passport
- Proof of return airline tickets
- An application form on the website
You will need to send an email, with all the scanned documents attached. You must not send an email that’s over 10 MB in size according to the official website. Moreover, travelers should not send follow-up emails to gauge the progress of their application for a health pass.
Is there a time frame? At the moment, the French authorities have given zero time frame on the turnaround between sending the email and getting a health pass. In fact, they suggest that processing time will depend on the number of applications.
During normal times, France is the most-visited country in the world. So you can expect to see many applications going through. It’s also critical to mention that the email must be formatted correctly, otherwise, the France authorities suggest they will not process the application.
Travelers can apply for the new Health Pass here.
***This article was published in August 2021. Since that date, France has changed the program several times, including the way one may obtain a Health Pass. Please see the latest news dated November 6, 2021, HERE
The Reason For The New Activity Health Pass
The rise in cases of COVID-19 thanks to the Delta variant caused France to implement the new activity health pass according to reports. The French President has claimed the activity pass, which is better known as a vaccine passport in the U.S, will protect freedoms in France.
However, France does have high rates of vaccination. The country has fully vaccinated 63.5 percent of all over 12s, which places it high on the global vaccination list.
It’s unclear how long the French authorities will use the activity pass. Nonetheless, it seems traveling to France without being fully vaccinated is a very distant possibility right now.
Read More:
Travel Insurance That Covers Covid-19
6 Amazing Destinations In Brittany, France
Top 5 Reasons To Visit Dordogne, France
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Opinions expressed here are the author’s alone, not those of any bank, credit card issuer, hotel, airline, or other entity. This content has not been reviewed, approved or otherwise endorsed by any of the entities included within the post.
Oleksii Lyeshchyner
Tuesday 2nd of November 2021
Hello, has anyone tried to obtain a French health pass recently? Looks like the French government created an online request tool instead of the email system, but pressing on official links from the embassy pages, brings me to a page that does not exist. Any recent experiences would be appreciated.
Christian
Saturday 30th of October 2021
“ Therefore, if you want to travel and enjoy France, there’s currently no way around being fully vaccinated.”
I am confused. How is there no way around being fully vaccinated when somebody can obtain the healthpass by providing a PCR test or an antigen test? Too me it sounds that France just like many other countries in Europe do recognize natural immunity, and there is no need for the vaccine.
Daniel Harris
Monday 11th of October 2021
I have made arrangements to visit Paris in a month. I just applied for a health pass but there is no way to determine if or when I will receive it, there is no way to expedite it and not even a way to make sure that it was received at all. At this point I don't know if I will be able to move around Paris. What is the remedy to this dilemma? Dan
hana
Monday 20th of September 2021
Hi I have a question if anyone can answer , Thanks. I'm planning to travel to Nice-France and I have a valid Schengen Visa issued from Italy , do I have to land in Italy first or I can use it to enter France directly?
Fully vaccinated , is there any other documents I need to fill ?
Regards, Hana
Roy
Thursday 12th of August 2021
@Sam, I have 2 questions. What is the status of the EU Covid Passport? Is it going into effect soon? And is there any info on the Italian Covid Passport, is there a way for a U.S. citizen to get the app?
Kashlee Kucheran
Friday 13th of August 2021
The eu's digital health pass is still not available to third-party travelers, nor is Italy's pass, so the paper cards from UK, USA and Canada are accepted by Italy at this time because of that.