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HEALTH

How France’s Covid ‘health passport’ will work this summer

French MPs have - after initial hesitation - voted through a proposal to introduce 'health passports' in France this summer, both for travel and for some leisure activities. Here's what we know about how they will work.

Published: 20 April 2021 11:16 CEST
Updated: 17 May 2021 14:45 CEST
How France's Covid 'health passport' will work this summer
The TousAntioCovid app. Photo: Damien MEYER / AFP

Detailing the phased reopening of France, president Emmanuel Macron stated that a pass sanitaire (health passport) would be needed for some activities from June.

IN DETAIL France’s calendar for reopening after Covid lockdown

Where can I find the pass?

The passport is already up and running on the French Covid-tracker app – TousAntiCovid.

The government has been clear that this pass is not just for people who have been vaccinated – you can use it to show that you have either;

  • been vaccinated
  • tested negative for Covid within 72 hours
  • recently recovered from Covid

TousAntiCovid now lets users upload either vaccination certificates or test results directly to their smartphone by scanning the QR code on the test result or vaccine certificate.

Both the quick antigen tests and PCR tests are included into this feature, which is called TousAntiCovid Carnet and is available in the ‘My wallet’ section of the app.

It looks like this on your smartphone:

Photo: TousAntiCovid

People who are being vaccinated now will be given a paper certificate at their appointment with a QR code, which can be scanned into the app. 

You can use the pass for entry once your vaccine certificate shows up as ‘complet’ in the app – for people who had Pfizer, Moderna or AstraZeneca this is two weeks after their second dose, for Johnson & Johnson, four weeks after their first dose.

People who have already been vaccinated and didn’t get a certificate will be able to access it via their Ameli account from ‘the second half of May’. If you don’t have an Ameli account here’s how to set one up, and if you don’t have a carte vitale here is the recommendation of the health ministry.

If you have recently recovered from Covid you will need to upload a positive test result that is more than 15 days old, but less than six months old. This can be either a PCR or antigen test.

What can you use it for?

At present, nothing, but from June 9th it is set to have two uses – travel and leisure.

Travel

France is already trialling the pass on domestic flights and preparing to begin using it for some types of travel within the EU. The pass will eventually be used for all types of travel, not just flying.

When France reopens its borders fully to non-EU travellers from June 9th, the health passport – showing either a vaccine certificate, a recent negative test or a recent recovery from Covid – will be necessary to enter the country.

EU/Schengen zone travel

Health passports are set to be brought into use in June via the EU’s digital green pass.

This doesn’t involve a separate app though, the EU has asked all member states to create their own domestic pass, like the TousAntiCovid app, and these will all be ‘linked’ so that all apps from EU or Schengen zone countries can be read by all countries.

Having QR codes to scan will also eliminate the problem of certificates and test results being in different languages.

France’s Europe minister Clément Beaune told radio station Europe 1: “You will have the same code to go from Paris to Athens, from Berlin to Madrid.

“It will be recognised by the security and health authorities of different European countries. We are working on European coordination on a reopening of borders this summer to allow the safe resumption of the movement of people between European Union countries.”

A dry run is due to start involving more than a dozen EU countries including France and Spain, while a full rollout of the system in all member states is planned in June.

Non EU travel

This is the bit that is less certain, as either the EU or individual countries will have to negotiate with non-EU countries to ensure that they recognise each other’s health passports, and that the different apps can ‘communicate’ correctly.

EU leaders have said they intend to start talks with countries including the USA.

Not all non-EU countries are issuing vaccine certificates with QR codes that can be scanned.

Go to our travelling to France section for all the latest updates to and from France.

What about within France?

The health passport will also be required for access to certain leisure activities, including concerts or large gatherings. It will not be required for ‘everyday activities’ such as visiting cafés or shops.

What about people who don’t have a smartphone?

People will be able to present paper certificates with the appropriate QR codes for scanning by officials at the border or at the entrance to events like concerts.

Beaune added: “It will also be possible to cross European borders by presenting a negative PCR test less than 48 hours old or a certificate of recovery from Covid-19. The health pass is not an additional obligation but an additional opportunity.”

Is it obligatory?

A question that frequently arises in France is whether a vaccine passport would divide the country into two: one vaccinated part with access to several activities to which the other was shut out from.

The government hopes that including the option for a test can bridge this divide, but Macron said: “It cannot be compulsory for access to everyday places such as restaurants or for visiting friends.

“On the other hand, in places where large crowds gather, such as stadiums, festivals, fairs or exhibitions, it would be absurd not to use it.”

The issue was debated in the French parliament on Tuesday with the government suffering a scare when the health passports proposal was initially voted down, before being passed in a second late-night vote.

Member comments

  1. Any thought on how this will work for Americans who have been vaccinated? Will we likely be able to upload our vaccine cards (no QR code)?

    1. We have the same question. We are fully vaccinated from Bermuda and our vaccination certificates do not have WR codes either. We have contacted the French Consulate here in Bermuda and they have not been able to give us an answer either……….

  2. Boggy, it is absurd and reprehensible to compare being unable to access the occasional concert or exhibition to how Jewish people were forced to identify themselves before and during the genocide of the Holocaust. I really hope you’ll take this opportunity to read up and reflect on the realities of anti-Semitism.

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For members

TRAVEL NEWS

Reader question: How do the EU’s new EES passport checks affect the 90-day rule?

As European travellers prepare for the introduction of enhanced passport checks known as the Entry & Exit System (EES), many readers have asked us what this means for the '90-day rule' for non-EU citizens.

Published: 1 May 2024 07:18 CEST
Reader question: How do the EU's new EES passport checks affect the 90-day rule?

From the start date to the situation for dual nationals and non-EU residents living in the EU, it’s fair to say that readers of The Local have a lot of questions about the EU’s new biometric passport check system known as EES.

You can find our full Q&A on how the new system will work HERE, or leave us your questions HERE.

And one of the most commonly-asked questions was what the new system changes with regards to the 90-day rule – the rule that allows citizens of certain non-EU countries (including the UK, USA, Canada, Australia and New Zealand) to spend up to 90 days in every 180 in the EU without needing a visa.

And the short answer is – nothing. The key thing to remember about EES is that it doesn’t actually change any rules on immigration, visas etc.

Therefore the 90-day rule continues as it is – but what EES does change is the enforcement of the rule.

90 days 

The 90-day rule applies to citizens of a select group of non-EU countries;

Albania, Andorra, Antigua and Barbuda, Argentina, Australia, Bahamas, Barbados, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Brazil, Brunei, Canada, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Dominica, El Salvador, Georgia, Grenada, Guatemala, Honduras, Hong Kong, Israel, Japan, Kiribati, Kosovo, Macau, Malaysia, Marshall Islands, Mauritius, Mexico, Micronesia, Moldova, Monaco, Montenegro, New Zealand, Nicaragua, North Macedonia, Palau, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Samoa, San Marino, Serbia, Seychelles, Singapore, Solomon Islands, South Korea, Taiwan, Timor-Leste, Tonga, Trinidad and Tobago, Tuvalu, Ukraine, United Arab Emirates, United Kingdom, United States, Uruguay, Vatican City and Venezuela.

Citizens of these countries can spend up to 90 days in every 180 within the EU or Schengen zone without needing a visa or residency permit.

People who are citizens of neither the EU/Schengen zone nor the above listed countries need a visa even for short trips into the EU – eg an Indian or Chinese tourist coming for a two-week holiday would require a visa. 

In total, beneficiaries of the 90-day rule can spend up to six months in the EU, but not all in one go. They must limit their visits so that in any 180-day (six month) period they have spent less than 90 days (three months) in the Bloc.

READ ALSO How does the 90-day rule work?

The 90 days are calculated according to a rolling calendar so that at any point in the year you must be able to count backwards to the last 180 days, and show that you have spent less than 90 of them in the EU/Schengen zone.

You can find full details on how to count your days HERE.

If you wish to spend more than 90 days at a time you will have to leave the EU and apply for a visa for a longer stay. Applications must be done from your home country, or via the consulate of your home country if you are living abroad.

Under EES 90-day rule beneficiaries will still be able to travel visa free (although ETIAS will introduce extra changes, more on that below).

EES does not change either the rule or how the days are calculated, but what it does change is the enforcement.

Enforcement

One of the stated aims of the new system is to tighten up enforcement of ‘over-stayers’ – that is people who have either overstayed the time allowed on their visa or over-stayed their visa-free 90 day period.

At present border officials keep track of your time within the Bloc via manually stamping passports with the date of each entry and exit to the Bloc. These stamps can then be examined and the days counted up to ensure that you have not over-stayed.

The system works up to a point – stamps are frequently not checked, sometimes border guards incorrectly stamp a passport or forget to stamp it as you leave the EU, and the stamps themselves are not always easy to read.

What EES does is computerise this, so that each time your passport is scanned as you enter or leave the EU/Schengen zone, the number of days you have spent in the Bloc is automatically tallied – and over-stayers will be flagged.

For people who stick to the limits the system should – if it works correctly – actually be better, as it will replace the sometimes haphazard manual stamping system.

But it will make it virtually impossible to over-stay your 90-day limit without being detected.

The penalties for overstaying remain as they are now – a fine, a warning or a ban on re-entering the EU for a specified period. The penalties are at the discretion of each EU member state and will vary depending on your personal circumstances (eg how long you over-stayed for and whether you were working or claiming benefits during that time).

ETIAS 

It’s worth mentioning ETIAS at this point, even though it is a completely separate system to EES, because it will have a bigger impact on travel for many people.

ETIAS is a different EU rule change, due to be introduced some time after EES has gone live (probably in 2025, but the timetable for ETIAS is still somewhat unclear).

It will have a big impact on beneficiaries of the 90-day rule, effectively ending the days of paperwork-free travel for them.

Under ETIAS, beneficiaries of the 90-rule will need to apply online for a visa waiver before they travel. Technically this is a visa waiver rather than a visa, but it still spells the end of an era when 90-day beneficiaries can travel without doing any kind of immigration paperwork.

If you have travelled to the US in recent years you will find the ETIAS system very similar to the ESTA visa waiver – you apply online in advance, fill in a form and answer some questions and are sent your visa waiver within a couple of days.

ETIAS will cost €7 (with an exemption for under 18s and over 70s) and will last for three years.

Find full details HERE. 

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