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FEATURE

Reader Question: Will Norway allow vaccinated Americans to travel to Norway?

Vaccinated travellers using the EU vaccine pass can enter Norway, but will Americans vaccinated against Covid-19 be allowed to enter? 

Published: 16 July 2021 12:18 CEST
Reader Question: Will Norway allow vaccinated Americans to travel to Norway?
A Boeing 737 landing at Oslo Gardermoen airport. Alan Wilson Flickr

Question: Will Norway allow vaccinated Americans to travel to Norway? 

This is a question on the minds of many of our readers from across the Atlantic; given the role, vaccines have played in opening travel across Europe, it’s a fair one.

Norway has already opened its borders to travellers using the EU health pass that allows travellers who have either been fully vaccinated or have had Covid-19 in the past six months quarantine free entry into the country. 

The US’s vaccination program has been working at express speed throughout the spring and summer, and over 150 million Americans are now fully vaccinated, according to Our World in Data. So, will Norway open up its doors to jabbed up travellers from the USA?

What are the current rules? 

Travel to Norway from the US is currently restricted to residents and citizens, with a few exceptions, which you can read about here. It’s also worth noting that the US currently ranks Norway as a level 3 for its Travel Health Notice. Level 3 indicates high levels of Covid-19 infections.

This basically means Americans “should reconsider travel to Norway”. In addition to this, the travel notice advises that unvaccinated travellers do not travel to Norway. 

READ ALSO: Norway issues travel deadline for partners from the US

Will vaccinated travellers from America be able to travel to Norway? 

This looks unlikely at the time of writing because of the rules Norway has adopted in relation to accepting vaccine passports. 

The lack of a universal vaccine passport in the US will prove a stumbling block that could be difficult to overcome. 

This is because Norway would need to set up a system for verifying the various vaccine passports for all the different states using one. The possibility of this happening is relatively low. 

Norway has only accepted vaccine passports from countries whose health passes were designed in line with the common European framework. 

Furthermore, if Norway began accepting vaccine passes from some US states, it would create an inequality between travellers from parts of the United States that use vaccine passes and states that don’t. 

Are there any other ways that Norway could open to travellers to the US? 

Things don’t look particularly rosy in this regard either. 

Previously the US spent a week on Norway’s purple list before being removed from it.

Being on the purple list meant that close family and partners of residents of Norway could travel to the country from the US. You can read more about the purple list here.

The US could once again be added to the purple list, but there has been radio silence from the government on this matter. 

The only possibility of entry rules for travellers from the US being similar to those with vaccine passes would be if Norway added the USA back to its purple list and relaxed the rules for purple countries to be more in line with green countries. 

While this is certainly possible, the likelihood of this happening soon appears to be remote due to concerns over the Delta Covid variant, which was first identified in India, which delayed the final step of Norway’s strategy to lift Covid restrictions in the country. 

In addition to this, the government may be looking to see how recent shakeups to its travel rules affect infection levels before another overhaul of the rules.

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TRAVEL NEWS

What will Europe’s EES passport checks mean for dual nationals?

The EU's Entry & Exit System (EES) of enhanced passport checks will usher in big changes for travellers - here we answer readers' questions on the position for dual nationals.

Published: 22 April 2024 17:10 CEST
What will Europe's EES passport checks mean for dual nationals?

The EU is preparing, after many delays, to introduce the EES system for travel in and out of Europe.

You can find a full explanation of how it works HERE, but in essence it is an enhanced passport check – registering biometric details such as fingerprints and facial scans and introducing an automatic calculation of how long you have stayed within the EU/Schengen zone in order to detect ‘over-stayers’.

And it’s already causing stress for travellers. We asked readers of The Local to share their questions here – and one of the biggest worries was how the system will work for dual nationals ie people who have a passport for both an EU country and a non-EU country.

EES: Your questions answered

EU passports 

One of the main purposes of EES is to detect ‘over-stayers’ – people who have either stayed in the EU longer than their visa allows or non-EU nationals who have over-stayed their allowance of 90 days in every 180.

As this does not apply to EU nationals, people travelling on an EU passport are not required to do EES pre-registration and will continue to travel in the same way once EES is introduced – going to the ‘EU passports queue’ at airports, ports and stations and having their passports scanned as normal.

Non-EU 

Non-EU travellers will, once EES is up and running, be required to complete EES pre-registration.

This means that the first time they cross an EU/Schengen zone external border they will have to go to a special zone of the airport/port/terminal and supply extra passport information including fingerprints and a facial scan.

This only needs to be done once and then lasts for three years.

Non-EU residents of the EU/Schengen zone

This does not apply to non-EU citizens who are permanent residents of an EU country or who have a long-stay visa for an EU/Schengen zone country – click HERE for full details.

Schengen zone passports/Irish passports 

EES applies within the Schengen zone, so people with Swiss, Norwegian and Icelandic passports are treated in the same way as citizens of EU countries.

Ireland and Cyprus are in the EU but not the Schengen zone – these countries will not be using the EES system at their borders, but their citizens are still EU citizens so can continue to use EU passport gates at airports and will be treated the same as all other EU citizens (ie they don’t have to do EES pre-registration).

OK, so what if you have both an EU and a non-EU passport?

They key thing to remember about EES is that it doesn’t actually change any of the rules on immigration – it’s just a way of better enforcing the rules that are already in place. 

Therefore the rules for dual nationals remain as they are – for most people which passport to travel on is a matter of personal choice, although Americans should be aware that if you have a US passport and you are entering the USA, you must use your American passport. 

But it’s also important to remember that the passports of dual nationals are not ‘linked’ – therefore if you present an American passport at the Italian border, you will be treated exactly the same as every other American, there is no way for the border guard to know that you are also Italian.

Likewise if you are a UK-Germany dual national and you travel back to the UK on your German passport, you can expect to be treated the same as every other German at the border, and might be asked for proof of where you are staying in UK, how long you intend to stay etc – the system has no way of knowing that you are also British. 

Therefore whether you have to complete EES pre-registration or not is entirely a matter of which passport you are travelling on – if you use your EU passport you won’t have to do it, if you use your non-EU passport you will.

It’s also possible to use two passports for the same trip – so let’s say you’re travelling from Spain to Canada – you enter Canada on your Canadian passport, and show your Canadian passport again when you leave. However, once you re-enter Spain you show your Spanish passport in order to benefit from the unlimited length of stay.

If you’re travelling between France and the UK via the Eurostar, Channel Tunnel or cross-Channel ferry, you need to remember that the Le Touquet agreement means that French passport checks take place in the UK and vice versa. You can still use both passports, but you just need to keep your wits about you and remember to hand the French one to the French border guards and the British one to British guards.

In terms of avoiding immigration formalities using two passports is the most efficient way for dual nationals to travel, but some people prefer to stick to one passport for simplicity, or don’t want to keep both passports together in case of theft.

Basically it’s a personal choice, but you just need to remember that you will be treated according to the passport that you show – which includes completing EES pre-registration if you’re showing a non-EU passport.

It’s also worth remembering that if the changes do cause border delays (and there are fears that they might especially at the UK-France border), then these will affect all travellers – regardless of their passport. 

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