Once again, they're back! Covid test required for travellers.

I had to have a negative Covid test to return to the US from EU last summer, even though I was vaccinated. I think it's par for the course.

Effective immediately? I can’t find it on the official pages yet. I leave Friday, so I should probably go ahead with a test regardless.

It makes sense to me, there are rumors the USA might start doing this as well. We'll see....

The Local says it starts Saturday: https://www.thelocal.fr/20211201/breaking-france-brings-in-covid-test-rules-for-all-non-eu-travellers/

“Within less than 48 hours”……. Before departure to, or, arrival into France?

Chris, in the past it has meant before departure.

there are rumors the USA might start doing this as well.

It´s more than a rumor. Antigen tests have been required for those entering the US for some time.

Thanks, kentchristine. That article is behind a paywall for me so I couldn’t read it. Scheduled a test for today anyway, just to be safe. Flight arrives on Saturday. :)

No problem Travelmom, and I pasted in the relevant info below:

"French government spokesman Gabriel Attal, speaking after the weekly meeting of the government’s Defence Council, has announced that from Saturday all travellers – vaccinated or not – will require a negative Covid test in order to enter France from any country outside the EU or Schengen zone.

This would include travellers from the UK, USA and Canada ... The test can be either a PCR or antigen test but must have been taken within the previous 48 hours ... Arrivals from within the EU or Schengen zone will only need a test if they are not vaccinated, but the test must have been taken within the previous 24 hours.

Attal said the measure will come into force ‘from Saturday’ but added that a precise start time would be clarified soon."

Thank you! I am working on the assumption it is 48 hrs from departure.

It is a lot harder to get a quick COVID test in the US than in France. I wonder if they will allow the Abbott home tests that can be monitored on video/on line?

Janet, I was able to get an antigen scheduled for either today or tomorrow through my hospital. I got nervous about today and changed it to tomorrow morning, which easily puts me in the 48 hr timeframe for a Friday morning departure. I didn’t even know it was available there till this morning. CVS was not an option and my Walgreens only offered the Binax as the antigen option. Urgent Care had options available. Not that any of this is relevant for you - except that I found places I didn’t know about before.

How thrilling that our US to UK to France to UK to US trip, a week ago, was going to require 3 cheap and easy lateral flow antigen tests, but will now require...

An expensive PCR test
Isolation until results come in
Another test before departure from UK to France (PCR? Antigen? Not clear yet)
Another expensive PCR test upon return to UK
Another test before departure from UK to US (PCR? Antigen? Who knows at this point)
Another test 3-5 days after return to US, probably

Ah, travel in the age of covid. All for a variant that's likely widely circulating everywhere regardless. Testin companies are making a killing, no doubt!

At this point we'll likely just scratch the Paris portion off the trip - cuts out a lot of the testing requirements and hassle.

Interesting that the French Diplomatic Ministry has not updated their information to reflect a negative Covid test starting Saturday…nor has American Airlines….

Brian …. Getting tested 3-5 days after return to US is not a given and where is the mechanism for the govt to check? We can’t even get testing easily in the US nor is there viable contact tracing.

Interesting that the French Diplomatic Ministry has not updated their information to reflect a negative Covid test starting Saturday…nor is American Airlines….

The government literally only decided on this a few hours ago, and has not as of yet drafted or published the implementing decree. It may appear tomorrow morning, maybe the day after.

Chris,

Certainly it's not a given, yet (thus the "probably"), but the post was more meant to highlight the differences between circumstances a week ago and today.

A week ago, we were vaccinated and boostered and looking forward to all of the perks and privileges of being so, including cheaper and easier testing requirements. Now, we've vaccinated and boostered and looking at many hundreds of dollars in PCR tests on far more strict and stringent timelines, there being no benefit at all to vaccination status (beyond, of course, the very real benefit of the protection afforded by vaccination, that I do not dismiss in the slightest).

For now, at least, still planning on going ahead. Just removing the Paris interlude portion of our trip. But it is fascinating how quickly things can change! We'll see if this trip holds up!

Sorry Kim… I should have continued my thought given there are folks who may be arriving Saturday thinking they are fine with just their vaccine cards and not needing a negative test result on arrival.

Brian…. I am right there with you 😔

there being no benefit at all to vaccination status (beyond, of course, the very real benefit of the protection afforded by vaccination, that I do not dismiss in the slightest).

To the contrary: at least for France, there is a BIG benefit of being vaccinated — which is that you can enter France without requiring a *motif impérieux *

I.e. if you are NOT vaxxed and are from the United States ((characterized by France as amber), you are ONLY allowed into France if you meet a certain set of exceptions.

So I would say being vaccinated still carries rather a big benefit ! (For France at least).

I have been looking at this forum for weeks in anticipation of our trip to France in 2.5 weeks for my family of 5. I have reserved all our tickets for museums that require it. PMP bought. Rental car booked. Hotels done. Disney tickets purchased. Then the news yesterday. Bummer. We leave Saturday, 12/18 at 1445. I thought I read it would be a 24 hour test. With the 48 hour test requirement that someone has mentioned, do we get the rapid test on Friday before we fly. I assume we are working off the 1445 departure time and not the time we arrive in France the next morning. Thanks in advance.

I have no personal knowledge of the French testing requirement. I hope we'll soon see the details on an official website. In the meantime, I do not think it's safe to assume the 48-hour limit is based on one's departure time. The wording of kentchristine's post clearly (to me) implies that it's based on the arrival time [emphasis mine]:

"French government spokesman Gabriel Attal, speaking after the weekly meeting of the government’s Defence Council, has announced that from Saturday all travellers – vaccinated or not – will require a negative Covid test in order to enter France from any country outside the EU or Schengen zone.

This would include travellers from the UK, USA and Canada ... The test can be either a PCR or antigen test but must have been taken within the previous 48 hours ... Arrivals from within the EU or Schengen zone will only need a test if they are not vaccinated, but the test must have been taken within the previous 24 hours.

Monsieur Attal may have misspoken or left out important information; maybe the published rule will say "within 48 hours of departure". But if I had an imminent departure for France, at this point I'd assume my test needed to be conducted no more than 48 hours before my arrival in France. If that's not the case, what is the reason for the difference (24 hours versus 48) in the time limits for EU/Schengen visitors and others? My interpretation is that they'd prefer to mandate a 24-hour test but realize it would be nearly impossible for non-Europeans to get tested within 24 hours of arrival in France and actually have the results by the time their documentation is checked before boarding their outbound flights.

Edited to add: Information available Dec. 2 suggests the pre-trip testing probably must be performed within 48 hours of departure, not necessarily within 48 hours of arrival. However, the language of the rule is still not as clear as I wish it were:

https://www.legifrance.gouv.fr/jorf/id/JORFTEXT000044394836

That's in French so most of us will need to use Google Translate or similar. The rules applicable to US travelers are in Paragraph 3, the machine translation of which reads "...less than 48 hours before the trip."

“Now, we've vaccinated and boostered and looking at many hundreds of dollars in PCR tests on far more strict and stringent timelines, there being no benefit at all to vaccination status (beyond, of course, the very real benefit of the protection afforded by vaccination, that I do not dismiss in the slightest).”

PCR tests cost hundreds of dollars where you live? We live in the US too. We are fully vaccinated and when we flew to Canada last October, we had to submit a negative PCR test taken 72 hours before departure. The PCR test at our local CVS cost us zero dollars.

Pappillon - I'm talking about the Day 2 tests required by the UK.

When lateral flow antigen tests were sufficient for Day 2 tests in the UK, you could order one for delivery to your hotel (or AirBnB or wherever else you'd be staying) and complete your testing requirements for 25-30GBP.

Now, PCR tests are required. The basic PCR tests would only cost about 50-60GBP, depending on provider. But those tests would also likely involve a turnaround time of at least 48 hours for results, during which time you'd have to isolate in your room and not go out.

Let's assume you don't want to spend the first 2 days of your 10 day vacation isolating in your hotel room (as I do not). I've looked in to and contacted a few different testing providers who can deliver quicker results, but these faster turnaround times also involve additional expense. Want your PCR results within 5 hours? 150GBP. By midnight same day? 80GBP. That does not include the additional 30GBP lab fee, since these faster tests require physically going in to a lab location for samples to be taken (as opposed to a self-administered, at-home PCR kit).

I had a line item for all testing/health pass expenses for our upcoming trip, and it included:
- 30GBP pp for Day 2 lateral flow antigen tests upon arrival in UK (could get em cheaper but I round my budgets up) = 60GBP
- 36Euro pp for French Health Pass
- 30GBP pp for Day 2 lateral flow antigen tests upon return to UK from France
- 30GBP pp pre-departure tests for US (and it wasn't even certain this would involve added expense. Because we depart from the USA 5 days after returning to the UK from France, representatives from 2 different testing providers told me that as long as we went in to a lab for an in-person Day 2 antigen test, they could also use that same test to provide us with a fit-to-fly certificate to fly back to the USA as it would fall on the 3-day mark).

So at most 180GBP in tests, possibly even just 120GBP, plus 72Euro for the Pass Sanitaire.

In the span of a few days, everything changed.

• 80GBP pp for same day PCR results so we only lose Day 0 to isolation, +30GBP pp lab fee.
• TBD GBP for pre departure to France (no clarity whether it's PCR only, or antigen or what)
• 36Euro Health Pass
• 80GBP pp for another round of same day PCR tests so we only lose 1 more day to isolation, +30 pp lab fee.
• TBD GBP pre departure tests for US (uncertain at this point whether antigen tests would suffice, or more expensive PCR tests are required so we're looking at either 30GBP or 100GBP more).

And that doesn't include any of the costs of isolation. Sure, we had that hotel already. But now it's a lost day, rather than a vacation day. Further, because of the isolation requirements we can no longer double dip on tests (the post-France Day 2 UK test can't double as the 3-Day USA pre departure).

+/- 150GBP in testing fees turned in to +/- 500GBP, very quickly. Even cutting out the France portion entirely (which is what I expect we'll be doing, if the trip proceeds) and thereby taking fewer tests still results in total fees well above what we'd originally anticipated under a pre-omicron, lateral flow antigen-eligible trip.

But hey, what's a vacation without some splurging and some unanticipated hiccups? I was just hoping it'd be on a last minute show ticket or fancy dinner, and not covid tests :P

Can anyone describe what form the proof of a negative test must take. I have a test scheduled with Kaiser but they usually just send you a notification. It is possible to print out the Kaiser test report, but frankly I think anyone could make up something that looks like it. I'm hedging my bets by getting an antigen test from CVS which I hope will provide something written, signed, maybe barcoded that I could load into my TousAntiCovid app. I'm panicking a bit because I only have a couple of days to figure this out.

I assume that the new, or actually reinstated, testing results will be just as it was before. Your airline will confirm the printed test results (downloads on personal phones were never accepted) and allow you to board a France bound aircraft. The 48 hour time frame is calculated from when the test was taken to your scheduled aircraft departure for France, or the transatlantic departure time for those with connecting itineraries.

Sometimes the test results were confirmed again by CDG staff as one disembarked the aircraft. They were looking for the test date and the word negative or NEG.

We are flying United. I looked in the Travel ready center part of the app. In the submit covid requirements section it has the following 4 options as acceptable proof
1. Negative PCR test 72 hours before departure.

2. Negative rapid test 48 hours prior to departure
3. Janssen completed 28 days prior to arrival in France
4. All other series of vaccines at least 7 days prior to arrival in France

Both 1 and 2 it gives you the earliest time and date to get the test.

What is interesting is that there is an OR in between each option. Someone is incorrect and I have to assume it is United Airlines. I think things are fluid at this time and nobody really knows yet what France will require. Bottom line is just keep checking as things are changing daily.

OR is correct ...... for now.

The new, more stringent rules are not yet in effect.

The PCR test costs $140 at CVS locally, if you're paying out of pocket. No cost or paid by insurance if you meet certain conditions.

Well, I think the new COVID regulations will sink my France vacation that’s due to begin in a couple weeks!!!! If US tourists returning home must take a COVID test no more than one day before departure, and I return on the 26th, then I must get tested with my family on Christmas Day ,,, when so many stores will be closed! Moreover, Christmas Day is also the day we are traveling cross-country from the south of France to catch out flight thé next day. How am I supposed to get my family tested when we’re on a train going 300km an hour on Christmas Day. Moreover, our hotel is not in the middle of Paris but at CDG. All my carefully laid plans over the past several months — including applying for and receiving French COVID cards by email — shot to pieces! Sorry, just venting my frustration

@Shane. The DoctoLib test site at Terminal 2 at CDG shows appointments on Christmas Day. You could test there. It’s a pre-security test site so you could certainly walk over sometime on Christmas day and be ready for your flight on the 26th. https://www.doctolib.fr/centre-depistage-covid/roissy-en-france/depistage-covid-aeroport-charles-de-gaulle

@valerie. Thanks for this very useful info! It may in fact mean the difference between going and not going.

Be sure you make appointments at the CDG test site Shane. Don’t rely on walking in.
They close early on the 25th at 2:55 and open on the 26th at 8:35. You need to scroll through the appointment listings. Add an extra hour on before checking in.

The south of France is large, but if you are in a town with an airport, you could take an early flight to CDG on the 25th and refund the train. Get there in time to test, but make an appointment.