Support thread for those with family abroad

[Schulte]

Anyone interested in a support thread for those of us who have family abroad, and don't know if we can see them this year? I had started to feel all positive and optimistic about going back to my home country this summer to see my parents, but it's now looking far from certain and I'm feeling increasingly depressed.

I thought maybe we can cheer each other up and share the latest on border openings, how and where to get tests for travel, etc.

Anyone?

This is not an important issue, but with these barriers Euro 2021 will have to be cancelled. London is a host city. The German players cannot get home in time because of the quarantine. www.dw.com/en/euro-2020-coronavirus-rules-could-cause-germany-team-major-problems/a-57670128
This might concentrate politicians' minds. They, sure as hell, do not worry about family reunions.

Exceptions have been made for footballers in the last year regarding quarantines so I’d not be surprised if they didn’t have any problems.

Germany does not allow exceptions for footballers this time.

Yes I’ve been wondering about the football teams too!

Largely been ignoring thoughts of visiting the Australian side of my family as that really seemed like pie in the sky thinking. Odd to find that they're now locked down again and subject to greater restrictions.

Im in DE too, not been home since 2019, and not looking like we'll be able to go anytime soon. DSiL has postponed her wedding to next year now thankfully so hoping we'll make that, but soooooo fed up with it all.

My town has just dropped below 50/100000 but we're still under restrictions. I'm finally meeting someone at a pub tomorrow — outside only of course — providing my Bürgertest is negative, 🤞

DH meanwhile is able to commute cross border for work.......

It's the constant changing of rules and restrictions that's getting to me, not being able to plan — oh and the endless rain........

In terms of France and Germany, I'm pretty sure this is a low-risk wait-and-see. They're so far behind us in coming out of lockdown that they won't be expecting high tourism numbers this month anyway (with the curfew still in place in France and no indoor eating) so they'll have their eye on July in any event, and can afford the extra caution to see what happens in the UK, and Spain and Portugal over the next couple of weeks. Assuming no disasters, I'm sure they'll be back to testing and vaccine certificates from UK travellers in line with the EU travel plans in July.

My concern is that there seems to be no end point. Vaccine hesitancy is low in the UK compared to most places in the world. If the British government are waiting till the vaccine rate is on par with the U.K. they will in many cases be waiting forever. The Eu has generally good vaccine coverage now and the doses given are increasing each day. An end point should be in sight, but it seems to be going further away.

I so hope you’re right @QuimReaper.

The British government have made so much hay from the speed of vaccine rollout they seem to not be able to acknowledge that by the summer the vaccine advantage of early this year, as compared to the Eu, will be gone. The USA (for eg) will likely take years to reach herd immunity because of vaccine hesitancy but surely they can’t be considering inhibited travel for roughly the next decade??

The Hungarian PM is meeting Johnson tomorrow. Politics aside, I am praying that they ease travel restrictions. Vaccine take-up is high in both countries, so what are we waiting for?! [Fingers crossed]

They interviewed foreign visitors on Hungarian tv and they all looked a bit forlorn. Without a Hungarian vaccine passport they are not allowed in anywhere like restaurants, cafes, spas or museums.

Oh no, the poor visitors! Won’t other forms of proof of vaccination be accepted? Hopefully all this gets sorted out soon...

@newstart1234

The British government have made so much hay from the speed of vaccine rollout they seem to not be able to acknowledge that by the summer the vaccine advantage of early this year, as compared to the Eu, will be gone. The USA (for eg) will likely take years to reach herd immunity because of vaccine hesitancy but surely they can’t be considering inhibited travel for roughly the next decade??

Yes and no. My Spanish dad 66 had his first vaccine 1st may. My mil 66 had Her first on the 12nd of February. So yes at the end of the road Eu might finish even sooner than us , however , for a long time the uk people have been vaccinated for longer so have had a higher protection which has helped in reducing the risk. Same with me im 36. I’d have had my first around last week (I had it in March ) but my 36yo friends won’t have theirs til middle July so the same , I’ll have been protected even if it’s with a single dose for much longer than them.

My parents are in their late eighties and in France. It has been a year since we saw them. I had been quite confident we would be able to visit them this summer, but recently I have worried that it might not happen which is making me weepy :(

Hi Easter. Is Spain going from oldest to youngest? 36 yo here in Denmark will be getting theirs in July, but that’s because the 30 somethings are at the end of the queue. Over 50s are done and we’re starting working from 16 upwards next week here to hopefully stop the spread quicker. I do wish dk would have a longer interval between jabs. It’s currently 5 weeks but if it were 10 weeks then everyone would get one shot much quicker.

My parents are in rural Oz and I am in the UK. I am an only child. We have not seen them since october 2019.

I lurked with fury on a recent thread where someone was sad about not being able to travel from Australia to the UK for her son's wedding and was being told she basically wasn't trying hard enough by UK based Mnetters.

I am generally resigned to it all now but am worried what happens if my father;s cancer (currently being treated) gets worse.

My parents are feeling it also. Probably not helped by my DAunt telling them last week she had decided to sell her house (15 minute drive from my cousin) to move next door to my cousin 'as that's what parents do, right?'. DAunt has always been a bit foot in mouth!!!!!

@CurryLeaves Wasn't trying hard enough to enter the UK you mean?!

I am so so sorry about your father. I lost mine in 2017 and what you describe sounds horribly distressing. I think aside from the immediate panic and fear over the pandemic, one of the things a lot of people who've been forcibly separated from their families had as a constant low-level anxiety was something happening and them being literally unable to be there. I was speaking with a friend in NZ about it the other day - it's a kind of claustrophobia.

@Tormundsbeard Sorry to repeat my earlier post, but in case it helps - looking at France's roadmap out of lockdown, they weren't going to be tourist-ready until July anyway: they aren't even planning on doing away with their curfew until June 30th - coincidentally the day before the EU travel plans kick in on July 1st - and they don't even have indoor hospitality open yet. I strongly suspect they're trying to keep their recovery on-track and doing some political posturing for the next couple of weeks, but have always had their eye on July to welcome tourists back anyway, and pending an actual disaster from the Indian variant, UK visitors being included in that will be a stone-cold certainty - the Euro tunnel and ferry crossings just bring in too much cash for them to be able to afford an overabundance of caution. They never needed to quarantine UK visitors before May 17th because we weren't going there in any numbers to speak of (and of course the variant wasn't on the radar as much) but I think it's unsurprising really that they've decided to keep us out for a couple of weeks to see how the chips land.

Basically - keep heart I think it's quite probable we'll be back to negative tests or vaccine certificates in a month or so.

I am so sorry about your dad, @QuimReaper.

well that she wasnt trying hard enough to leave Australia. The thread annoyed me so much because people did not get it was not as simple as getting on a plane 'But I have googled and Etihad are flying every day!!'.

I agree about the low-level constant anxiety. And the claustrophobia. It used to be that my parents and I would say 'If anything happens we can be there within 48 hours' Now it's not possible.

I am praying also that negative tests and vaccine certificates help us out of this.

I am lucky that my DH and Dcs are here in the UK so I have them here with me. I feel so grateful for that.

to everyone in this situation.

‘a lot of people who've been forcibly separated from their families had as a constant low-level anxiety was something happening and them being literally unable to be there’

You’ve hit the nail on the head there. It’s why I Facetime my parents every day, when in the old days I maybe spoke to them once a week. Been so much more worried about them and over the past 15 months of video calls have watched them get older and frailer. The low level anxiety you’re describing is there almost all the time.

Hopefully the sunshine we’ve been promised will make things look a bit brighter.

I have heard a few stories of people I know travelling back and forth from the continent even in deepest lockdown. People with children in boarding schools abroad and divorced parents who live in different countries. I have no idea how they did it! I think it involved a lot of testing and quarantining.

I’m relatively ‘lucky’ in that my parents are in an area with virtually no Covid I haven’t really had to worry about anything happening to them from that point of view.

But I do have that anxiety that something else might happen to them before I see them next.

We have really turned the corner here in BC and our numbers are way, way down. Starting to open up, thank goodness. Even 17 year old DGS has had first jab. Dh and I were both allowed yesterday to book our second and got appointments in mid June. This is faster than predicted.

All of which is making me hopeful we will be a green country. A bit worried because we are such a big country and other provinces are not where we are. I read this morning that health care providers in Manitoba have covid-deniers still denying on their death bed. Scary.

Vaccine hesitancy arises even where you least expect it. It is a huge problem in some places.

Crossing my fingers we get to see our english family in September.

Morning. France has changed its rules and I’ve been in the embassy’s website but it’s not clear to me:

• whether you are still allowed to travel through France in transit to another country
• whether having and EU passport means you’re exempt from needing a compelling reason even if you’re a UK resident?

Are there any french speakers here who have the answers?

I think it’s number 2 on the list of compelling reasons here.

www.interieur.gouv.fr/content/download/127827/1021070/file/2021-05-30-attestation-de-deplacement-vers-la-france-metropolitaine-version-uk.docx

But I’m not 100% sure. It doesn’t look easy though. Looks like you’d need a test within 48hrs of departure to France, a declaration that you’d not been in contact with anyone who’s tested positive in the last 14 days and a certificate with a compelling reason to enter and one for leaving.

DHs Mum is 88 and alone in France but looking very unlikely he will be able to see her. He and her are fully vaccinated, its more complicated as well as ASD child who goes mute/runs off who is terrified of testing. I was hoping dh could go over alone but with the 10 day quarantine here and 7 day hotel quarantine there and 10 million tests its not really possible with working and a family.