Thursday, March 3, 2022

Entry Requirements

Only about a month now until my rescheduled trip back to the UK.  Knowing my luck, it's about this time that a new even more transmissible COVID variant will get discovered and throw my plans into disarray.  But before then, I was checking entry requirements to the UK.  And I was pleasantly surprised to discover that there are no longer any COVID testing requirements for vaccinated people entering the UK.  When I was going to travel in December, I was required to book and take a PCR test upon arrival - so I had booked and paid for a test at Heathrow.  When I canceled that trip, I got given a credit for retaking the test within a year.  I guess that credit is going to go unused now - yet another waste of money, much like the lateral flow test that I had also previously been required to book for the trip.  What is frustrating is that the US has not changed it's COVID entry requirements yet.  So to re-enter the US, currently I still have a take (and pass!) an approved COVID test within 24 hours of flying back.  Which is a massive, and expensive, pain in the ass.  However this time I am prepared for this.  I've just ordered a CDC-approved at-home COVID test which meets the requirements for re-entry.  It's still a bit of hassle in that I think I have to perform the test on a video call, but hopefully that's something I can do easily enough and a lot less hassle than finding somewhere (probably involving a trip into central London) to get the test.  Or perhaps the US will catch up with the rest of the world and also drop it's testing requirements for vaccinated people.           

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