Travel Advice

Up to date information and guidance on travel is available at Coronavirus (COVID-19): travel advice | nidirect  Specific guidance for travel within the Common Travel Area (within the British Isles) can be found on NIDirect at https://www.nidirect.gov.uk/articles/coronavirus-covid-19-travelling-within-common-travel-area  

The emerging international certification processes to evidence COVID status will complement the traffic light system in the coming months.

COVID Certification Service (CCS) development

The Department of Health is developing a COVID Certification Service (CCS) that will allow NI residents to provide verified proof of vaccination, recent test or Covid immunity, where required. The service is due to go live in Northern Ireland on or before 19 July. Initially certificates will be provided in the agreed specialised paper format and an app similar to the NHS app will follow by mid-August. The process of applying for and receiving paper certification is expected to take 10 days. The process requires several security checks to be made, ensuring that personal health and social care information is protected.
The work takes into account current World Health Organisation (WHO) and EU common standards for COVID status certificates. Any documents produced outside of this CVS are unlikely to meet these standards and therefore cannot be relied upon to meet other countries’ entry requirements. Currently GPs, vaccination centres, the Department of Health and other parts of the health service cannot produce proof of vaccine to the required standard for travel purposes.
The digital version of certification will also support evidencing of negative PCR COVID tests as an alternative to evidence of vaccinations.

It should be noted that there is no interim solution to enable citizens to evidence Covid vaccinations status pending the introduction of CCS.


Alternative Criteria

Some destination countries may have alternative entry criteria such as negative PCR tests. Further information is available at Foreign travel advice – GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)

Similarly, some commercial companies may have alternative entry criteria developed to comply with disability legislation.

Department of Health

CONTACT TERRA TRAVEL TO BOOK YOUR HOLIDAY SAFELY
(028) 3835 1500