Returning to the USA from Europe

Antigen tests are accepted, and many pharmacies perform them with results available within 30 minutes. You will also notice a lot of pop-up tents offering rapid testing around Paris; I assume that they will still be there in Sep.

Balso, that's great information - thank you.

More discussion in the Covid 19 and travel subforum

Here’s a relevant thread.

https://community.ricksteves.com/travel-forum/covid19/rapid-test-in-paris

This question has been answered several times on both the France and Covid-19 pages of the Forum, just take a look through the thread titles. Yes, tests are easy to get, you’ll see testing tents often in front of pharmacies. Cost will be €49 for PCR test or €29 for antigen test.

You get a print out of your antigen test 15 minutes after they swab you. (I had two done in May.)

Here is another one of the threads that discusses this

https://community.ricksteves.com/travel-forum/france/france-to-start-charging-tourists-for-covid-tests-on-july-7

Thanks to everyone for providing the info. The process seems easy enough. I appreciate the feedback and maybe by the time we return on September 13 this requirement will no longer be needed.

Note that the CDC order you linked to doesn't require a negative test "taken within the past 72 hours," it requires a negative test taken within three days before the departure of the US-bound flight. The passenger must "attest that I have received a negative pre-departure test result for COVID-19. The test was a viral test that was conducted on a specimen collected from me during the 3 calendar days preceding the flight’s departure." That means, for example, that if your last homebound flight departs on Friday, you must have taken the test (given the specimen) on Tuesday or later. Your flight could be departing Friday evening and you could have given the specimen Tuesday morning, you'd still be good if it's negative. And the antigen test is acceptable along with others that cost more and take longer to process.

Sure, this is already available worldwide. You will definitely be asked for either a negative covid test or an antigen test, taken within 72 hours before boarding the plane to the USA. You can take the tests in clinics, hospitals, labs - which are usually more expensive, but there are also drugstores/pharmacies and mobile spots (like tents), where you can take a quick antigen test and receive your result from 15 to 45 minutes, and of course, it also costs less. I am planning to move to the USA (from Europe) in 4 months. It took me a while to decide where I wanted to move, but after reading an article on the costs of living on https://costoflivingreports.com/united-states/tucson-az/, I've decided that Tucson, AZ is exactly where I want to live. Hopefully, the COVID restrictions will be less strict. However, I am quite worried that they will require a vaccine (which I don't have).

kmr678936 -

perhaps starting your own thread would be better so that the original poster who has already completed their trip and will now get notifications about your question....

In the mean time if we knew where you are moving to Arizona from we may be able to compare the relative restrictions.

Do you have your visa taken care of?