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

@WiseUpJanetWeiss

Her first sentence says Italy!

Doh! Need coffee…

@IsabellesMissingSock you only have to do the reciting code thing to set up the NHS app if you haven't previously set up online access with your GP surgery. If you have already done that the app automatically pulls all your medical records when you enter your NHS number.

Once your app is set up the COVID passes for both domestic and travel use are automatically available. I have used the travel pass to get into Spain and had no problems.

That's strange! I've had online access with my go surgery for years and still had to do the code thing. So did my husband

*gp surgery

@IsabellesMissingSock

That's strange! I've had online access with my go surgery for years and still had to do the code thing. So did my husband

Doctors online service and NHS app are two completely different things. You do the 4 digit code once only when downloading the NHS app

Yea they are different things. A previous poster said though that if you have online GP services you don't need to do the code thing.

@ParisNext

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.

I ordered a paper version to take to the Channel Islands as it will take ages to scroll through all the various screens to get to it on the NHS app whereas taking out a piece of paper is about one second!

The paper copy doesn't have an expiry on it, by the way.

I think the thing with the having previously set up the online access with GP is that you have already given permission for your medical records to be shared with these apps, so this streamlines the set up process. I just inputted my details including NHS number and everything downloaded automatically.

Both domestic and international travel passes are held on the app when this process is complete, there isn't a separate process needed to get each

We're travelling next month. Interested in the ordering passport bit - is there some reason we can't just print the pdf?

Hi I'm in Italy, make sure you carry ID too. Last week I saw some foreign tourists getting their Covid passports checked to enter a restaurant and the owner wanted to see ID to verify they were the person who owned the barcode ( in the end of of the group did not have a passport so they were refused entry anyway) Not sure which nationality they were, maybe their Covid Passports didn't display their name. I use the Immuni app so it has my name and if you can use it, I recommend it. Aside from that it is the law to carry ID at all times anyway, so is always a wise idea.

I am now much clearer on why my dh had to do the 4 letter code thing and I didn't. That's the bit that threw me, making me start the thread. I've definitely downloaded the app before in the past for some other reason whereas he definitely wouldn't have. That all makes sense now.

Good tip on bringing id to restaurants - thanks!

We are hopefully going to Italy in half term. We are both vaccinated, but our DDs (15 + 12) are not. I had presumed they would need proof of negative tests to go to a restaurant, is that the case. Do they still need it to sit outside a cafe?

Do they still need it to sit outside a cafe?

Not sure about Italy, but here in France yes, you do need to show proof of vaccination or a recent negative test to sit outside and have a coffee/beer.

@Janek

We are hopefully going to Italy in half term. We are both vaccinated, but our DDs (15 + 12) are not. I had presumed they would need proof of negative tests to go to a restaurant, is that the case. Do they still need it to sit outside a cafe?

Outside a cafe in Italy, no. Unless they go in to go to the loo or something.

LFTs are only valid for exactly 48 hours. And it can't be self administered (but there are pop up tents everywhere and it costs €8 for kids) (DD hadn't had her second vax when we went to Rome so we did an LFT and just managed to pull the Colosseum in but the guy said "you know you've got an hour and twenty minutes".

Inside restaurants, bars, cafes of any kind-yes

Museums and some touristy places of worship- each of these decides for itself (eg this summer I went to Rome, Florence and Siena- St. Peter's basilica, no green pass needed, Duomo of Florence, yes, Cathedral of Siena, yes)

That's brilliant news about outside the cafe, because our local one doesn't have a toilet so they don't need to go inside!!!

We don't do much touristy stuff, but good to know about pop up tents, hopefully we'll have one locally. Perhaps they'll have had one jab by the time we go, but certainly not the second!

@Janek

That's brilliant news about outside the cafe, because our local one doesn't have a toilet so they don't need to go inside!!!

We don't do much touristy stuff, but good to know about pop up tents, hopefully we'll have one locally. Perhaps they'll have had one jab by the time we go, but certainly not the second!

The pop ups are great- there were loads everywhere, basically almost every pharmacy has one. 20 minute turnaround.

Oh fab, we've definitely got a pharmacy - we go to my mil's appartamento although obviously we haven't been for a while - thank you so much for the information.

My covid passport has disappeared! Currently isolating with covid but called NHS app people who said they deactivate it while you’re isolating and it will reappear when your isolation ends (to stop people travelling when they shouldn’t be even leaving the house!) you can enter a neg LF or PCR to update it after isolating, so they told me… Glad I found this out as meant to be going to Greece next month and wouldn’t have known to check otherwise!

@geamhradh question re masks: I have read we need 'medical' masks, rather than cloth ones for the plane. Do you happen to know if the normal blue ones will do, or if they need to be those more hardcore ffp2 ones? TIA, we're off on Friday, hopefully...

I haven't read the full thread but wanted to add that you can also add your Covid Pass to Apple Wallet. That way if the app goes down (like it did the other day) you still have access to it.