Any Canadians Have Experience in Travelling with Proof of Vaccination

Hi BB,

We are Canadian (from BC) and had similar concerns before we took off for Switzerland on August 19. We returned to Vancouver on September 3. In our case, we were given these little cards after vaccination- similar in size to a business card- that had our names, birth dates, brand of vaccine, the lot number of the vaccine, and date of vaccination all handwritten on it. Nothing official looking about it, other than the fact that the cards were pre-printed with "Covid-19 Immunization Record Card" with empty fields to fill in the information. These were what we presented in Switzerland when asked to provide proof of vaccination at passport control. During the entire trip, we were only asked for this proof when we checked in for our flight to Switzerland, when we entered Switzerland, when we checked in for our flight home, and when we went through passport control in Toronto on our way home. No one had any issues with these documents.

I hope this helps, and that you'll be able to go, and enjoy your trip!

Thanks. Good to know.

In Italy, we will need proof to go to museums or restaurants and to ride the train. Hoping what we have will suffice, but trying to eliminate any surprises, if possible.

BB, you have my sympathy. There is a lack of information out there, and I have found the federal government's and my own province's web sites to be very confusing. The federal election probably isn't helping.

My wife and I were scheduled to fly to France later this month. But because of the confusion, we postponed our trip until next spring.

But we are still very interested in anything that you find out and if you do go, how the Europeans react to your Canadian vaccination paperwork. We have our BC Immunization Record Card (filled in by hand when we got our shots) and as of late last week, BC's brand new smartphone Vaccine Card with QR code. Even with those I'm not convinced they are enough, as they are meant for provincial applications and they aren't official Canadian government documents.

So please keep us updated, and hopefully more Canadians will let us know what their experiences are.

Peter

Thanks, Peter. I envy you BCers with your smartphone card. It's better than what we have, at least.

My understanding is that our federal government is working with the EU to develop a solution for Canadians, but I don't think it will be available in time for our trip. And, who knows, if our current government is replaced in the election, if the next government will continue with that. :/

BB, I thought I read something in the Sun or Herald this weekend that the government is going to come up with a card sized proof of vaccination. I'll see if I can find the article. I suspect that the card will eventually be available on the My Alberta Health website. Also, while I don't know if it will work as proof overseas, but have you tried the My Health Records App? It shows the same information that you can find on the My Alberta Health website. You can download the app from this site.
https://myhealth.alberta.ca/myhealthrecords

Here is one of the articles that I read.
https://globalnews.ca/news/8144725/alberta-no-vaccine-passports/

Thanks, Allan. Yes, I'm aware of both of those. I don't know if the card will be in time or what it will include, but, hopefully, it will be acceptable. When Shandro tweeted about it, he made it sound as if he was doing it just to placate those of us who wanted it "for whatever reason," and I'm afraid I'm not that confident that it will be sufficiently secure and official-looking to be accepted overseas. I do have the app, also, but someone said it doesn't work outside of Canada. Not sure if that's true, but I don't want to wait until I'm in Europe to find out.

I hope that these will be accepted, but I feel like I need to bring my 8 1/2 by 11 sheets to be sure.

Allan, I just saw a news report that the cards will be available September 16. Fingers crossed, and hopefully they will be accepted as proof overseas.

BB, just heard the same thing on QR77. They're also hoping to have a QR code in the upcoming weeks. Seems like our government's stance on not having a vaccine passport means they will have one but not call it a vaccine passport.

I hadn't heard about the QR code coming. That would be good.

I arrived in Germany on September 6th with vaccine card from BC and printout from the BC health website. I took the printout plus my passport to the pharmacy in Berlin main station and the pharmacist entered my details into the system and gave me two QR codes (one per dose) which are valid across the EU. The service was free. I was able to load the QR codes onto the Coronawarn app which is used for checking into places in Germany and so far have not had a single problem with hotels, boat trips, restaurants, concert halls or museums.

Good to know. Thanks for sharing your experience.