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Health Pass at CDG

I saw online that their are more than a few locations at CDG to get the Health Pass. In Terminal 2. Has anyone done this or have any idea on what time they open? I get in around 7:00am from JFK in a few weeks. I assume it will be very busy but just curious if anyone knows. I have tried the email address and submitted my app via the website October 16th but no luck so far. I leave in 17 days.

Posted by
11 posts

Hopefully we can garner some firsthand accounts and tips from folks making the trip now.

Posted by
16 posts

Thanks for this direction to the pharmacies open within CDG and around Terminal 2E (where we come in mid-december)! Will eagerly await intel from travelers who don't already have passe sanitaires who are arriving in France now and in the next few weeks who can report on the process and reality on the ground!

Posted by
50 posts

I fly in on November 27 and my plan is to try and just get it right there at Terminal 2. Will be interesting to see what the line looks like but I'd certainly rather get it asap when getting there. I will try and provide an update on how it went on this forum. Even though I applied for the Health pass on October 16th I am not expecting to receive it via the website as now that they have Monetized it this will be the only way. If I don't get it at the airport there are a bunch of Pharmacies right by my hotel.

Posted by
763 posts

The Join Us in France podcast published today updated information for getting your health pass. More information will be offered in their podcast coming out on November 14, but here are the main points.

  1. You can only get your QR code when you arrive in France, not before
  2. The QR code is delivered on paper but you can import it into the TousAntiCovid App so you always have it on hand
  3. One code per person, one code per phone
  4. Kids under 11 never need a QR code (you may need proof of age if your kids look older)
  5. 975 pharmacies are enlisted to create the vaccine equivalency right now in France (there's a map on the link below)
  6. The number of pharmacies that offer this service should keep growing because they can charge 40€ per pass for the service
  7. The pharmacies that can do this right now at the CDG airport (or nearby the airport) are:

Pharmacies that can turn your vaccination card into a French QR code at CDG right now: La pharmacie du 2F (in Terminal 2F), Pharmacie Aerogare 2D - La Boutiquaire (in terminal 2D), Pharmacie Lahmi (terminal 2E). Pharmacie Bonassoli (25 Rue Houdart, 95700 Roissy-en-France) is not far outside the terminals.

Here is the government website link for more information: https://www.sante.fr/how-to-obtain-a-french-health-pass

You do not need a pass to take a taxi or the RER, but is recommended that you get one before taking a connecting domestic flight or train. It is recommended to allow 4 hours for this procedure at an airport pharmacy.

Posted by
11 posts

@Wanderlust

Thanks for the information. They recommend to set aside 4 hours at CDG for the health pass?? There's no way in hell I'm doing that after a 7 hour flight, unless it is literally the only option to get out of the airport. Did they specify whether that 4 hour timeframe is just for the pharmacies at the airport or did they provide other timeframes for other pharmacies around the country?

I'm also flying in the morning of November 27th. If all this information is correct, it probably makes more sense to try any of the other hundreds of pharmacies around Paris.

Posted by
50 posts

where did you see 4 hours at for the Health Pass at CDG? I would wait an hour but I am not waiting 4. They are adding Pharmacies every day who will have the health pass. last week it was like 60 now it is a couple hundred in Paris alone..

Posted by
16 posts

I emailed Pharmacie 2F directly this morning to ask about their Health Pass conversion process. They wrote back nearly immediately saying:
"Bonjour Vous pouvez venir à la pharmacie 2F située dans le Terminal 2F pour obtenir le pass sanitaire avec votre attestation de vaccination. La procédure prend moins de 5 minutes.Bien cordialement "

They of course are not opining on how long it would take if there were a line; I wonder if they haven't experienced long lines yet at CDG/T 2F yet or what? The 4 hours info from above is disheartening as we are going from inbound plane to TGV south in a 3.5-4 hr window.

Posted by
11 posts

That would be the fear. Sure, the actual verification of the documents and generation of the QR code might take the pharmacy 5 minutes. But if you have 20 flights arriving from out of the country in a two-hour window, who knows how long it will take.

Just for a little fun, let's look up how many flights typically arrive in a given window at CDG. This site doesn't allow you to search arrivals other than a few days in advance, so I chose this coming Saturday 11/13 as the arrival date, and between 06:00-12:00 for arrival times.

https://www.flightstats.com/v2/flight-tracker/arrivals/CDG/?year=2021&month=11&date=13&hour=6

The results yielded 35 pages with 25 arriving flights per page. That's over 800 arriving flights in a six hour window. Let's say each of those flights have 20 people on it; that yields 40,000 people arriving into CDG during that time. LOL!

Now, I didn't really check whether there were duplicate flights, nor did I search by terminal, and obviously many of those flights could be domestic flights, but needless to say these numbers are giving me a very uneasy feeling. Perhaps the pharmacies at the airport will have plenty of staff to accommodate thousands of passengers similarly to the customs agents, but in my experience I would find that hard to believe.

Just my two cents on this matter, to be taken with a grain of salt since I literally have no idea what's going on there at the terminal. But based on these numbers, the "4 hour" estimate for the passe sanitaire seems feasible if you ask me.

Posted by
763 posts

I think that the Join Us in France crew got their 4 hour estimate from eyewitness reports, the newness of the program, and the sheer numbers of people coming in from all over the world looking for the Health Pass. I'm assuming it was an estimate for airport pharmacies. They didn't mention timelines for other pharmacies around the country. Considering the delays we have been experiencing in European airports since last summer due to a variety of COVID reasons/excuses, 4 hours seems reasonable to me. If we want the pass, we pretty much have to go with their flow, don't we?

Posted by
50 posts

After reading a lot of these comments and other info 4 hours make sense.. I personally would probably just take my chances at the hundreds of pharmacies in town.. thanks for the great info

Posted by
248 posts

I just got back. A friend gave me this contact email - from the consulate, I believe: sec.se-cab@diplomatie.gouv.fr. I sent them separate low-res pdfs of my vaccination card, passport, flight/ticket info and I had the QR code the next day.

And on a separate note - get to CDG early! I left the 3rd arr. at 8:30AM for a 1:15 flight. There were RER problems that day, the interminable lines at check-in, passport control, security screening etc., shuttle to the gates. By the time I got to my gate, boarding was starting. They're not kidding about the 4-hour thing.

Posted by
50 posts

They shut down that email address last week.. I tried that as well lol.. According to the points guy in an article from 2 days ago they are still processing Health Pass submissions from prior to them shutting down the site.. I submitted mine on 10/16. I will provide an update if that happens. Not expecting it but you never know. I still have 12 days before I am in Paris.

https://thepointsguy.com/news/latest-health-pass-questions/?tw=1&utm_source=twitter&utm_content=05AEA6C2-43E3-11EC-BA65-89DF4744363C&utm_term=editorial&utm_campaign=thepointsguy&utm_medium=social

Good information on getting to the airport super early. I have seen a few posts stating that.

Posted by
22 posts

I received my QR code by email just before the Internet portal shut down. Unfortunately, I did not receive the QR codes for the other members of my party (my wife and two kids).

I plan to peek into the pharmacy at CDG airport to see if there is a line (as I expect there will be -- as someone pointed out, there are just too many tourists arriving at CDG at any given time to make this a practical solution. . . but I'll still check).

But what I will probably end up doing is getting the tests and QR codes for my family at a pharmacy near my hotel in the middle of Paris. I've already emailed the hotel to ask it for such info, as I suspect it is being asked about it all the time by new arrivals at the hotel. Otherwise, I've also used the official map of pharmacies enrolled in the program, and there are a few near my hotel that we can check out if need be.

I suppose we will "make an adventure of it," rather than view the pursuit of the QR codes as a waste of valuable time when we could be sightseeing on our first day in France! That's why I kind of hope we end up searching out a pharmacy on foot near our hotel. I'd rather spend 4 hours doing it that way (God forbid it actually takes that long, though!) than spend 4 hours in line at the airport waiting for the same thing.

Posted by
806 posts

@Shane - to be clear, there are a couple of different things here.

CDC card conversion occurs at specific pharmacies that are on a map someone's provided before. That's the one that will cost up to 36E/pp

You can get an antigent test (29E, although mine cost 25E in the 7th a couple of weeks ago) that will give you a pass sanitaire good for 2 or 3 days - so if you're only in Paris for two days, that could be the way to go if you don't think that CDC cards will work. You can get the antigen test at almost any pharmacy.

Posted by
13 posts

My sister flew in to Paris from the US on Friday to meet us for a long weekend, so I thought I'd summarize her experience w/ the Health Pass at CDG.

She landed at Terminal 2E at about 9:30 AM on Friday and after about a 30 minute line at customs proceeded right to one of the pharmacies in that terminal, where she received her converted vaccine Health Pass after a really short wait. We were expecting her to encounter a really long line (and were prepared to bail and try at a pharmacy closer to our hotel), but it was surprisingly smooth for her. The only callout is that they were being being very strict about accessing terminals (security checking boarding passes), so she had to talk to one of them to allow her to go up to the pharmacy after she got her bag (she just told him she was going to the pharmacy and let her through, but don't be surprised if you encounter something similar).

Regarding the wait times departing out of CDG, definitely allocate extra time. She arrived before 1 PM for a 3:50 flight and had to sprint to her gate after long security lines in order to make her flight home, so make sure you allocate extra time. There also appears to be construction planned on the RER line throughout the next few months, so I would recommend being aware of anything impacting the line during your specific days you need to get to/from CDG (for us, it was actually more convenient b/c they closed a number of stops, so the overall travel time was reduced into the city).

PS: I did want to note that she speaks a little bit of French (enough to ask for the Passe Sanitaire, but certainly not fluent), so I'm unsure if that impacted the ease of the process for her, but did want to call that out.

Posted by
22 posts

@skunklet1771 Thanks for your reply.

Do I understand correctly, Skunklet, that if each member of my family already has a U.S. COVID card (as they do), we don't necessarily have to pay to take a COVID antigent test once in France in order to receive a "passe sanitaire".

Rather . . . we can merely convert our U.S. COVID card into a French one at a participating pharmacy without taking an antigent test?

Is this correct? Any further advice would be much appreciated!

(We will indeed be in Paris for only three days, but we will be elsewhere in France for another seven days, so I am definitely interested in obtaining a French COVID card or "pass sanitaire" -- though I understand that the latter lasts for only 72 hours and, I assume, would need to be renewed every 72 hours that we are in the country.)

Posted by
806 posts

Shane: Correct - if you all have CDC cards, no Antigen test is needed (with the caveat that you need to test to return to the US). You bring them to a participating pharmacy, pay up to 36E each and it converts that into a passe sanitaire (bonus - that's an EU passe, so if you're travelling to other countries, the QR code works there too).

Posted by
22 posts

@skunklet1771 Thanks for this clarification. I have good news as of this morning: the French government sent me by email the COVID certificates with QR codes for two of the three persons in my group who had not yet received them. (I had been sent my certificate in early October or so.) This means only one person is my group is without the French COVID certificate with QR code!

But what is surprising about the receipt of these two documents by email this morning is that I had assumed the French government was not going to process any COVID applications sent in through its website prior to the site's shut down: I thought all the other members of my group would just have to visit a pharmacist on arrival in France!

In any event, this gives me new hope that the third, remaining member of my party will soon receive her COVID card by email, because I submitted her application at the very same time I submitted the applications for the two persons whose cards arrived today unexpectedly.

Posted by
50 posts

That is great news. When did you apply online? My group did on October 16th and still waiting.

Posted by
806 posts

there have been other reports in other travel groups that France is still processing the backlog from the online application.

Posted by
99 posts

First hand experience last week
got the pass sanitaire at CDG 2F at pharmacy

i think they open until 2000

30 euros and fast
( 5 min)

they are asked for in almost all restaurants

Posted by
7981 posts

There were people here and on TA who were reporting reapplying for the pass on line every day. I suspect that kind of behavior clogged up the system so completely that they just gave up taking new applications. It is a pity as the system worked well and was free. Now we all have to pay 36 Euro.

I wonder if it is the same high fee to add the booster. We will find out when we return in April.

Posted by
7 posts

Does anyone know if the French Health Pass will work in Italy?

Note: I will get the Health Pass at one of the designated pharmacies in downtown Paris. Paris metro and RER trains do not require the Health Pass.

Posted by
14809 posts

The French health pass is an EU digital pass and should work all over the EU.

Posted by
7 posts

@Frank ... Thanks for the confirmation!
My plan is to spend 5 days in Paris before I fly to Rome; so I can just get the French Health Pass in Paris and use it in Italy. While France does not require Covid testing for fully vaccinated American tourists; Italy does require a Covid testing no more than 72 hours at arrival. I will get a Covid antigen test at one of the pharmacies in Paris before flying to Rome.

Posted by
16 posts

EDIT: So grateful for the advice and intel that emerged on this thread. Just wanted to report that-- after anxiety about how to get the Health Pass conversion in the window between arriving at CDG and catching a later TGV train--I can now report that, incredibly, our Health Passes arrived in our in-boxes this morning good to go! We'd applied Oct 26 and now have about 2 weeks left before we go so it is a giant relief, but, at this point, had been unexpected. I feel lucky not to have to worry now about how quickly to get the pass conversion at CDG! I guess only conclusion I can draw is that if folks applied through the French Ministry FRANCE CONNECT portal, these applications must still be under review and perhaps staff there are watching the flight dates of the applications to get them to us just in time. IN any event, feel I can now fully settle into looking forward to the trip, and wish anyone else awaiting their Pass/QR code the same good luck! Best to all and thanks