Norway has started accepting COVID-19 certificates issued in Serbia, Georgia, Moldova, and New Zealand on November 17th, 2021. This is because these four countries have been recently connected to the EU Digital COVID Certificate (EUDCC) gateway.
The EU Digital COVID Certificate gateway was built by the European Commission in order to verify certificate digital signatures across all countries of the European Union.
All hospitals, test centers, and health authorities issuing valid COVID-19 certificates have their own digital signature key stored in a secure database in each country. The EUDCC gateway, which is hosted at the Commission’s data center in Luxembourg, is a digital infrastructure connecting these national databases for verification purposes.
The EUDCC gateway checks the digital signatures to detect fraudulent COVID-19 certificates and prevent further falsification. The technical infrastructure was tested by 20 Member States and Iceland before being officially activated on June 1st, 2021.
Thanks to the connection to the EUDCC gateway, the local COVID-19 certificates issued in Serbia, Moldova, Georgia, and New Zealand can be verified by the Norwegian authorities now, so they can be used to travel to Norway. They’re valid as non-EU country certificates equivalent to an EU Digital COVID Certificate.
It’s important to note that no personal data is collected during the verification of the signature because only the digital signature is allowed to pass through the system. This happens when the border control personnel checks the certificates and scans the QR code upon the traveler’s arrival in Norway.
Fully vaccinated travelers who can present these certificates at border controls will be exempt from the travel quarantine requirement and the COVID-19 diagnostic test requirement upon arrival in Norway, as well as any children accompanying them. This facilitates safe free movement between countries during the COVID-19 pandemic.
These certificates serve as proof of a COVID-19 recovery (only valid if the traveler contracted the virus during the past six months) and/or a complete vaccination schedule against COVID-19, which is the most important requirement.
However, not all COVID-19 vaccines are accepted in Norway. Norway follows the statements of the World Health Organization and the European Medicines Agency, for which the main approved vaccines are Cominarty, Janssen, Moderna, AstraZeneca. Additionally, it accepts Covishield, Sinovac, and Sinopharm.
Norway has been connected to the EUDCC gateway for verification of other countries’ COVID-19 certificates since 24 June 2021.
- Currently, the Norwegian authorities accept certificates from the following EU and non-EU countries (including the new additions):
- Albania
- Andorra
- Armenia
- Austria
- Belgium
- Bulgaria
- Croatia
- Cyprus
- Czech Republic
- Denmark
- Estonia
- Faroe Islands
- Finland
- France
- Georgia
- Germany
- Greece
- Hungary
- Iceland
- Ireland
- Israel
- Italy
- Latvia
- Liechtenstein
- Lithuania
- Luxembourg
- Malta
- Moldova
- Monaco
- Morocco
- Netherlands
- New Zealand
- North Macedonia
- Norway
- Panama
- Poland
- Portugal
- Romania
- San Marino
- Serbia
- Slovakia
- Slovenia
- Spain
- Sweden
- Switzerland
- Turkey
- Ukraine
- Vatican City
- United Kingdom
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