New Entry Requirements for the UK | Before travelling, always make sure you have fulfilled all the requirements of your destination and possible transit country. Because of COVID-19 travel scenario has changed a lot, and almost every country has some restrictions on traveling to that country you must abide by.
The UK Govt. has recently updated new entry requirements for the country due to the pandemic. Also, the government is introducing Electronic Travel Authorization (ETA), a British entry permit document, which will allow travelers from eligible nations to visit Great Britain for numerous purposes without acquiring a full visa. The ETA UK will be available online within 2025. Till then, all travellers, including those from visa-exempt nations, will need to fulfill new entry requirements for the UK.
Click here to know more about what the United Kingdom has to offer.
- You should keep in mind that travel restrictions are subject to change on short notice.
Before you depart for the UK
You need to follow:
- Entry requirements in the UK depend on where you were in the last two days before arriving in the country. For example, if you have arrived from a country on the green list, you must take a COVID-19 test before two days of arrival. If you are coming from an amber list country, you have to quarantine yourself in the country you are staying in and take 2 COVID-19 tests. And, you cannot currently enter the UK if you have been in the country on the red list unless you are a citizen of the UK or have the right to live in the UK. Check the latest entry requirements here.
- All travellers are required to obtain an online Health Declaration form called Public Passenger Locator Form before traveling to the UK. It’s free to apply, and you can apply through this page. You need to provide the information earliest 48 hours before your journey.
- Don’t forget to take the print of the Passenger Locator confirmation document you received through email once you have completed the form. You will be required to show the printed document to the airline agent at the gate and the authorities upon arrival.
- While travelling to London, Manchester, or Edinburgh (Scotland), apart from a mandatory COVID test 3 days before travelling, pre-purchase a post-arrival PCR-test package from the UK government’s website and self-isolate for 10 days after you arrive in the country. Information on possible work-related exemptions to the pre-purchased test package can be found here. If you are exempted from the pre-purchase test package due to your work, you must indicate this in your Passenger Locator Form. However, at the border, you will be required to show a letter from your company which includes:
- Your personal details: name, address, etc.
- Contact details of your employer
- What work you will be doing in the UK
What you can bring with you
What you can bring with you depends on your location. You must inform the custom:
- Anything that exceeds your duty-free allowances
- Restricted products and good in the UK
- Goods that you have brought for business purpose
- More than 10000 Euro or equivalent cash, if you are coming from outside the EU.
Moreover, your baggage might be checked for anything you have declared above. Most importantly, you must abide by the COVID-19 restrictions currently apply in the UK.
