Can anyone help regarding covid passport for travel?

[BonyN]

Hi, I'm due to fly to Italy in a couple of weeks. I need a covid passport. I've downloaded the NHS app and put in my details and it's just "there", showing one image of my first vaccination and then another for my second. All details correct.

Is that it?! I had imagined a very drawn out process to get hold of this passport and don't want to turn up at the airport to find out there was something else I had to do to validate it.

Does anyone know?

Thanks

That's it. You also need to order antigen or pcr tests to fly out and fly back and you need a day two pcr test for when you're back. You'll need the reference number of it to fill in your return to uk form to get through security

One additional question, assuming what I have is the actual correct thing, do you just show it at the airport on your phone? Or does it have to be in some other format? I've tried to work it out myself but the website I'm looking at isn't very clear!

@disconnecteddrifter

That's it. You also need to order antigen or pcr tests to fly out and fly back and you need a day two pcr test for when you're back. You'll need the reference number of it to fill in your return to uk form to get through security

Thank you disconnected

I ordered one from the NHS app and an a4 page was posted to me. It’s got my details and the vaccine details on it.

In the app there's a link "Get your NHS covid pass"

Click ok that and follow the obvious options for travel, and you have the option to download a pdf copy

The pdf version is what you need for the airport.

Ooh yes I see the pdf option. It all just seems too simple, I'm scared I'm missing something!

I've just flown to spain. All I had to do was show the NHS app, the "travel" passport bit. You need to fill in the passenger locator form too. But that's it for flying out if you're going to an amber country

@BonyN

One additional question, assuming what I have is the actual correct thing, do you just show it at the airport on your phone? Or does it have to be in some other format? I've tried to work it out myself but the website I'm looking at isn't very clear!

You'll just show it on your phone but I have taken to always carrying a paper copy as well as once my app didn't open on the phone (Vatican museum ) and I was holding up the queue faffing!

Take a paper copy that can be accessed without data/4G or if your phone battery dies/drop it etc. It is simply not worth the trouble if not having a paper copy. I travel constantly and have watched people on rising panic at check in and passport as they swipe at phones or have no mobile data overseas etc. The copy lasts fir a month.

So you just print out the PDF then? Or is it best to order one in the post. I print all travel stuff as I wouldn't want to take a chance with a holiday, phone could go dead. So much for no paperwork nowadays 😂

Having paper copies will speed everything up. Most of the hold ups at boarding and immigration are created by people frantically scrolling through their phones to find the relevant documents. It’s worse when a whole family’s documents are on one phone.

Also- Italy has a Covid pass requirement to get into restaurants, museums, fairs, etc. Some of my friends managed to install and “transfer” the nhs pass into the Italian equivalent app (“Immuni”) but others struggled to get this to work and eventually used the French one - as the pass is Eu recognised, as long as you have it in one Eu app it’s ok in Italy too.
They’ve all told me that a printed version of the barcode is useful, because there’s hiccups in some places. But take note of the expiry time of the barcode (which you get from the NHS app), after one month you need to generate another one

Recently traveled to Spain and just showed the COVID pass in the app. No need to print out PDF but you can for back up. This was from Gatwick. Was checked by airline staff when checking in luggage but not by anyone else.

Arriving in Spain just scanned the QR code which is generated from the email you are sent after completing the Spanish passenger locator form, then straight to passport control. Took all of 5 minutes to get through from plane to baggage reclaim!

We’ve got both paper ones and on our phones, just in case phone is dead. Paper one came in about 5 days.

This is all great advice, thank you everyone! Does anyone have experience of how you prove your fit to fly to pcr test is negative? Is that also worth printing out? If you can't (I think I'll already be at the airport when it comes...) can you show it on your phone?

Again, I'm not sure about the actual travelling into Italy (I'm here and haven't been out since 2019) but bring anything you can on paper as well, as pps have said.
You need vaccine passes to sit and have a coffee inside a bar, for example.
I was in Rome a while back with DD and her EU pass hadn't yet come through (first dose generates pass here after 12 days and it was something like 7 days) so we did an LFT at a pop up tent. (Also accepted within 48 hours for green pass passes iyswim) Only place we were almost refused was a Macdonald's at the railway station on our way back because the guy didn't like the fact that the chemist who'd done the LFT had signed below a certain line Luckily I had the paperwork from the vaccine hub saying she'd had one dose and he accepted that.
Sorry, I know that's not part of your query, just thought it might be useful!

@Geamhradh

Again, I'm not sure about the actual travelling into Italy (I'm here and haven't been out since 2019) but bring anything you can on paper as well, as pps have said. You need vaccine passes to sit and have a coffee inside a bar, for example. I was in Rome a while back with DD and her EU pass hadn't yet come through (first dose generates pass here after 12 days and it was something like 7 days) so we did an LFT at a pop up tent. (Also accepted within 48 hours for green pass passes iyswim) Only place we were almost refused was a Macdonald's at the railway station on our way back because the guy didn't like the fact that the chemist who'd done the LFT had signed below a certain line Luckily I had the paperwork from the vaccine hub saying she'd had one dose and he accepted that. Sorry, I know that's not part of your query, just thought it might be useful!

Very useful - thank you!

Does anybody know what the situation is if the fact you have tested positive is on your passport please? Like BonyN I am traveling abroad in a few weeks and was surprised how simple the passport was. Mine has 3 pages and 3 QR codes. 2 to say when my vaccines were and 1 to say I tested positive for Covid in July 😬.

Hi Helen, I'm not sure because I've not been in that situation but I can only guess your up to date negative result for the fit to fly usurps that?

@BonyN

Hi, I'm due to fly to Italy in a couple of weeks. I need a covid passport. I've downloaded the NHS app and put in my details and it's just "there", showing one image of my first vaccination and then another for my second. All details correct.

Is that it?! I had imagined a very drawn out process to get hold of this passport and don't want to turn up at the airport to find out there was something else I had to do to validate it.

Does anyone know?

Thanks

You should see a QR code that passport control can scan

OP, where are you going?

Not all countries will accept your NHS vaccination pass (your NHS vaccination certificate is not a EU vaccination certificate) and you’ll need a test before you fly. Some countries do accept it and you’ll only need a test to get back home.

Just to check - you've done the thing where you have to film yourself reciting a 4-number code right? You need that for the travel one. The one you get automatically is for domestic purposes.

@WiseUpJanetWeiss

OP, where are you going?

Not all countries will accept your NHS vaccination pass (your NHS vaccination certificate is not a EU vaccination certificate) and you’ll need a test before you fly. Some countries do accept it and you’ll only need a test to get back home.

Her first sentence says Italy! Which accepts NHS pass.

If you have any doubt, there’s an app called VerificaC19 which allows you to scan your pass and will tell you if it’s as expected. Or so I am told (I’ve got to go to Italy next week, so not yet personal experience)

Her first sentence says Italy!

Doh! Need coffee…