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Reader question: How likely is Italy to change its restrictions on travel from the UK?

With Italy set to review its Covid restrictions on travellers from the United Kingdom by July 30th, dozens of readers have contacted The Local to ask whether the existing quarantine and testing rules are likely to be extended or scrapped from that date. Here's what we know so far.

Published: 21 July 2021 16:20 CEST
Updated: 22 July 2021 10:01 CEST
Reader question: How likely is Italy to change its restrictions on travel from the UK?
Photo: Filippo Monteforte/AFP

Question: Do you know when an announcement will be made about whether the five-day quarantine for visitors from the UK will remain in place after July 30th? Do you think this will be included in the decree announcement this week?

Italy reinstated quarantine and double-testing requirements for all arrivals from the UK (including anyone who has transited there within the past 14 days) on June 21st amid concern about the Delta variant-driven surge in coronavirus cases in Britain.

As Italy is not currently making any exemptions for those who are vaccinated, and with steep fines for anyone found not following the rules, this abrupt change has proven a big problem for many of The Local’s UK-based readers – particularly those who had been planning to visit Italy this summer for shorter periods to attend weddings and other events.

READ ALSO: How should travellers from the UK quarantine in Italy?

Even those who were planning longer trips have had to rethink plans, not least because low demand resulted in airlines slashing the number of flights available on UK-Italy routes.

As well as waiting for the UK to remove Italy from its ‘amber’ travel list, would-be travellers have their hopes pinned on the Italian government’s own planned review of its rules before they’re set to expire on July 30th.

Unfortunately there has been no indication yet from any official sources as to whether the government is likely to extend the measure, change it, or scrap it altogether from that date.

If previous reviews of similar travel rules are anything to go by, it’s unlikely that the government will announce anything until a few days before the July 30th deadline.

Photo: Marco Bertorello/AFP

The Italian government is currently preparing a new decree containing changes to the country’s health measures, but this appears to cover only domestic restrictions.

Any updates to the international travel rules are usually announced separately via ordinances from the Italian health ministry, often just a few days before the deadline.

What’s likely to happen then?

Unfortunately, with no official indication either way it’s impossible to tell which way things will go when the rules are up for review.

While summer travel and tourism is important to Italy’s economy, authorities here have so far been more cautious when it comes to travel restrictions than some other southern European nations such as Spain.

REVEALED: How strictly is Italy enforcing rules on Covid testing and quarantine for UK arrivals?

Italy still has tight restrictions in place on travel from many non-EU countries. It is allowing entry from all EU and Schengen zone countries using the Europe-wide  ‘green pass’ scheme, and has allowed entry from some non-EU countries under the same terms – namely the US, Canada and Japan.

Italy’s health ministry said it had relaxed the rules for these countries due to their high vaccination rates and lower rate of infections.

This doesn’t sound like positive news for people in the UK, with Italy now entering its own Delta-driven fourth wave with more than 3,000 new cases daily, and contagions rising further in the UK as the English government scraps all precautions within the country.

But there is some hope for those who’ve been fully vaccinated, as talks are reportedly still ongoing between the EU and UK on the mutual recognition of vaccine passports.

Will Italy start recognising the UK’s proof of vaccination via the NHS app?

While there have been no updates on a possible EU-UK agreement for several weeks, France has this week begun to independently recognise proof of vaccination in the UK – triggering speculation that other countries may follow suit.

France is allowing UK visitors who were vaccinated to upload their NHS certificates to the French health pass app – even though this recognition only goes one way, as the UK is not currently recognising France or any other EU countries’ health passes.

Whether or not more countries might start recognising each others’ health passports may depend on whether their apps are able to “communicate” with each other, as much as on international relations.

There has been no word yet from Italian authorities or either the British Embassy in Rome or the Italian Embassy in London as to whether the two countries are working on a bilateral agreement on recognising or using each others’ health passports.

On Monday, the Italian Embassy in London updated its website and posted on social media to stress that the UK’s health pass is not currently recognised in Italy, and vice versa.

“The ‘Covid pass’ contained within the NHS app does not guarantee an exemption from the health rules (fiduciary isolation and testing obligation) for travellers to Italy,” the embassy wrote.

Some travellers may be eligible to skip quarantine in Italy under certain exemptions – see the Italian Foreign Ministry’s official travel website here for more information.

And anyone vaccinated under the NHS can currently return home to the UK after a trip abroad without facing a quarantine period – though people who were vaccinated in Italy would still face quarantine in the UK under current ‘amber’ list rules.

Note that these rules are based on which country you travel from, and not which passport you hold.

The Local will continue to follow the travel restrictions closely. Please check our homepage or travel news section for the most recent reports on any changes to the rules.

For more information about the current coronavirus-related restrictions on travel to Italy please see the Foreign Ministry’s website (in English).

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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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