On December 1st, 2021, the Government of France released a decree that modifies the previous decree 2021-699 from June 1st, 2021, prescribing the general measures necessary to manage the health crisis caused by the novel coronavirus SARS-CoV-2.
Given that COVID-19 cases are augmenting and the Omicron variant is being detected in several countries with an infection focus in southern Africa, the new decree adds new travel restrictions for South Africa, Botswana, Eswatini, Mauritius, Lesotho, Malawi, Mozambique, Namibia, Zambia, and Zimbabwe.
On November 26th, 2021, the French Government suspended flights from these African countries for 48 hs after the discovery of the new COVID-19 variant. Now, people traveling to France from these countries will have to present a negative COVID-19 diagnostic test at the borders whether they’re fully vaccinated or not. This rule will apply to individuals of 12 years of age and above with additional documents demonstrating a valid, compelling reason for traveling to France.
Generally, compelling reasons include:
- Being a French citizen or a French resident (with a residence permit or long-stay visa), or the child or the spouse of a French citizen (married, civil union, or cohabitating) or resident, including refugees.
- Being a student enrolled in French as a foreign language (FLE) courses or a teacher or a language assistant.
- Working as a transport service provider.
- Being a passenger in transit for less than 24 hours.
- Having a consular mission, diplomatic duties, etc., in France.
Other non-EU nationals (including the United Kingdom after the Brexit) will also need to take the COVID-19 diagnostic test 48 hs before arriving in France.
People coming from another Member State of the European Union, Andorra, Iceland, Liechtenstein, Monaco, Norway, San Marino, the Vatican, or Switzerland will only have to take the test in the hypothetical case that they can’t present a valid certificate proving vaccination status or COVID-19 recovery status. Again, these norms only apply to travelers of 12 years of age and more.
Other requirements include a sworn declaration in which the traveler states that he or she doesn’t have any COVID-19 symptoms and that he or she hasn’t been in contact with a sick person in the last two weeks. This is only for vaccinated people who have successfully completed the immunization schedule with a vaccine approved by the European Medicines Agency in the last seven days (if you received Pfizer, Moderna, or AstraZeneca shots) or four weeks in the case of one-shot vaccine Johnson & Johnson.
People who are fully vaccinated with Sinopharm or Sinovac must receive an ARNm dose of Moderna or Pfizer booster shots at least one week before arriving in France.
Those who are not vaccinated must take the test less than 24 hs before arrival if they come from a green area placed under surveillance by France’s Ministry of Health. These territories encompass Austria, Bulgaria, Croatia, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Latvia, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, the Netherlands, Romania, Slovenia, and Slovakia in the EU. In the case of Belgium, proof of vaccination is always mandatory.
Non-vaccinated travelers coming from orange countries must have pressing grounds for travel, take a PCR test 72 hs before departure or a negative antigenic test less than 48 hours before departure, and self-isolate for 7 days after arrival in France. If they come from a red country instead, the travel quarantine lasts 10 full days and the travelers must commit to this via sworn declaration and proof of location of travel quarantine facility.
The list of red countries includes Afghanistan, Belarus, Botswana, Brazil, Costa Rica, Cuba, Eswatini, Georgia, Lesotho, Moldova, Montenegro, Mozambique, Namibia, Pakistan, Russia, Serbia, Suriname, South Africa, Turkey, Ukraine, and Zimbabwe.
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