6 Simple Steps to Travel Abroad during COVID

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This post is all about travel abroad during covid.

So you want to travel abroad during covid? Having recently been through the process, I thought I would shed a little bit of light on the subject as it can be a daunting task to prepare for. When researching what the requirements were for my trip to Scotland, I felt a bit overwhelmed by the number of documents that needed to be signed and actions that needed to be taken. But don’t worry! All these steps are fairly simple once you have it all organized.

Here I am going to break down the process to travel abroad during covid. But just to clarify, this is specifically for traveling to the UK from the US. I recommend checking for the most updated information for any country you plan to visit. This can be found either on the airline’s website you are booking through or the country’s own website. For example, here is the latest update on the UK’s guidelines.

Let’s get into it, shall we?

The first thing when searching for somewhere to travel to during covid is to look at their requirements for out of country travelers. For the UK, there guidelines were as followed:

• A negative covid test 72 hours prior to your flight into the UK
• A negative covid test two days after arriving in the UK (VACCINATED ONLY)
• A ten-day quarantine with a negative covid test on day two and day eight of arrival (NON-VACCINATED ONLY)
• A negative covid test 72 hours prior to leaving the UK

COVID TEST 72 HOURS BEFORE DEPARTURE – Travel Abroad during Covid

Now this may seem like a lot, but let’s break it down. If you live in the US, you can find plenty of places to receive free covid tests prior to traveling abroad such as CVS, Walgreens, or Rite Aid. They also do free covid tests at the airports. Unfortunately, on the day of our covid test, CVS had a national system shutdown, so we received our tests at our local urgent care. Depending on your health insurance, you may need to pay for this one.

But the biggest requirement is that you have to have the negative test results completed within 72 HOURS before your flight. For example: our flight was leaving on a Wednesday. We got tested on Sunday. We could’ve gotten test Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, or Wednesday but no earlier. Most tests results take 48 hours to get back to you, but you can pay for faster results. It does not matter what time of day your flight is as long as you get the test within the three-day requirement.

All covid tests must be PCR tests. The airline nor customs accepts other test types. 

NEGATIVE COVID TEST ON DAY 2 OF ARRIVAL – Travel Abroad during Covid

This test you can book in advance as well. If you know where you will be staying when you arrive in the UK, you can have the test shipped to that address at no additional charge. We double checked with our Airbnb to make sure it was okay to send our tests there. Thankfully they were kind enough to receive them and have them waiting for us upon arrival. You can purchase these tests through this website. 

Within your testing package, you will receive detailed instructions on how to self-administer the test and how to send it back. Once completed and packaged back up, you can drop your tests into any of the red priority mailboxes in the country. Very easy and no stress! You should receive your test results within 48 hours, but you don’t have to worry about doing anything else with these specific results. Just celebrate the negative covid result and have a great time adventuring abroad!

COVID TEST 72 HOURS BEFORE LEAVING THE UK – Travel Abroad during Covid

This is the same situation as your first covid test back in the US. You need to have the test done three days prior to your departure back to the US. I was unable to find any trustworthy free covid test sites abroad without being a UK citizen. So, I had to splurge on my test. Overall, I feel that it was worth it because I did not have to stress about not getting the results in time or something going wrong. You can easily search for a place to schedule your covid test anywhere that says, “Fit to Fly”. If you are staying in Edinburgh like I did, I received my covid test through Newington Pharmacy.

Remember: This must be a PCR test!

Now that we’ve got the covid tests out of the way, let’s talk about the other documentation! I flew American Airlines and British Airways, and both airlines used the app called Verifly. If you book through them, they will recommend using this app to make your time through security and customs easier.

Verifly simply puts all of your important travel documents in one place. It also tells you what you will need to show for each flight. Let’s go into what each flight will require from you for Verifly.

DEPARTING THE US

When preparing to leave for the UK, Verifly will ask for three things. 

• Passenger Locator Form
• Negative Covid Test
• Vaccination Card (if applicable)

Both the covid test and the vaccine card can be easily uploaded onto the app. The passenger locator form is a pretty hefty document. This document will ask you all the travel questions, so be prepared with your flight details, your address while abroad, your passport number, and the length of your stay. I highly recommend filling this out completely before going to the airport, or you will not be able to board your flight.

My personal experience with the app was great. I only thought I had a problem with the passenger locator form when it asked for my seat number for my flight. As I was taking two separate international flights, I couldn’t check in online. When I got to the customer service desk at the airport, they informed me that I could simply put economy instead of a specific number. However, if you are able to put the exact number, I recommend doing so in case they need to track and trace a positive covid case on your flight.

Once you have uploaded all of your documents, you will get a green check on your app that you can show to anyone who asks for it at the airport! When I got to my connecting flight in Heathrow, customs simply scanned my passport which gave them access to my completed passenger locator form. This made customs go by without a hitch!

DEPARTING THE UK

Your vacation is over, and you have to do the whole process over again. But fear not! There is no passenger locator form to fill out for the trip home! The only documents you will need are:

• Negative Covid Test
• Test Agreement Form

This new form, the test agreement form, is simply you agreeing that you have received a covid test and that the results were negative. Why must you sign a form when you have the documentation right there? I have no idea. But at least it isn’t a million pages long!

ARRIVING IN THE US

Now this was the strange part of the journey. At customs back in the US, they did not accept Verifly. They wanted another app called Mobile Passport. Neither of my airlines had told me out this one, but the lady at customs said that if we didn’t have Mobile Passport, we were directed to a table with a form we needed to fill out by hand. 

The form simply wanted to know your address and if you brought anything back into the country (produce, animals, etc). The average traveler has nothing to worry about. Once the form was filled out, customs signed off on it, and you were led to baggage claim!

You’ve Got This!

I hope this helped! Traveling abroad can always seem daunting, but throw a pandemic on top of it, and it seems impossible. Just make sure you have all your ducks in a row, and you will be just fine. There are plenty of people at the airport as well that were happy to help at every step of the way. Feel free to message me if you have any questions or want to tell me about your experience!

Just another reminder! This may not be the most up to date information depending on when you are reading this. I will try to update it in the following months as new guidelines are announced. Also this is only talking about travel from the US to the UK. Other countries have separate guidelines.

Be on the lookout for my blog post about my time in Scotland. Coming soon! 

This post is all about travel abroad during covid.