OBSOLETE COVID THREAD Portugal open to Canadians—Feb. 19, 2022

[Kathor1]

I posted the comment below in an older and longer thread but, for practical reasons, it now marks the start of this new thread. Therefore, some additional explanation: The Portuguese government has worked out new legislation that is in effect since Saturday 19 February 2022 (one Decree, one Resolution and one Order). Order n.º 2181-B/2022 is listing Canada together with Brazil, the USA and the UK as countries from where non-essential travel to Portugal is allowed. Dre.pt is the official website where laws, decrees etc. are published in Portugal. The new legislation is on Dre.pt but other websites, like Visitportugal, Re-open EU or airline websites, may only get updated after this weekend. Here's what I wrote earlier:​

Yay, my Canadian forum friends, you are back in the game : Despacho n.º 2181-B/2022 has now this list: De passageiros provenientes do Brasil, do Canadá, dos Estados Unidos da América e do Reino Unido.

Non-essential travel from Brazil, Canada, the United States and the United Kingdom is allowed as of today 19 February 2022!

Emails to embassies, government officials, parliamentary representatives, and alerting the press, in Canada and in Portugal, have brought fruit. Well done!

 

[Kanga]

So lets see what happens with Australia! We are still in a state of total confusion.

 

[Kathor1]

So lets see what happens with Australia! We are still in a state of total confusion.

VisitPortugal has not yet updated their webpage to reflect the content of the new order that was just published on February 18. I am not a lawyer. However, my reading is that they are now in line, more or less, with the current EU Recommendation on travel restrictions. Meaning, that vaccinated travellers, with proof of their vaccination, can enter Portugal on non-essential trips. This proof does not have to be an EU DCC. In addition, there are a number of categories of travellers who benefit from further exemptions. This includes non-vaccinated Portuguese nationals travelling from anywhere to Portugal but also non-vaccinated travellers flying to Portugal from the USA, Brazil, Canada and the UK.

As I said, I am not a lawyer. I'm eagerly awaiting newer updates of the VisitPortugal webpage. And I hope that these updates will be written in a clear language.

 

[Kathor1]

VisitPortugal has not yet updated their webpage to reflect the content of the new order that was just published on February 18. I am not a lawyer. However, my reading is that they are now in line, more or less, with the current EU Recommendation on travel restrictions. Meaning, that vaccinated travellers, with proof of their vaccination, can enter Portugal on non-essential trips. This proof does not have to be an EU DCC.

This is how I read the part of the text about which documents qualify as proof of vaccination if and when required to have such proof in order to be authorised to enter Portugal:

• EU Digital Covid-19 Certificates (DCC)
• Certificates from those non-EU countries who have applied for adhesion to the EU DCC system and are connected to the EU gateway
• Certificates from other non-EU countries provided that their data fields contain the required information

Let's see what VisitPortugal makes of the text of the new decree.

 

[Kanga]

@Kathar1na could you please post a link to the published order?

 

[Kathor1]

a link to the published order?

I looked at:
https://dre.pt/dre/detalhe/despacho/2181-b-2022-179423775

https://www.dre.pt/dre/detalhe/decreto-lei/23-a-2022-179327569

https://www.dre.pt/dre/detalhe/resolucao-conselho-ministros/25-a-2022-179327570

Also, when you go to https://www.dre.pt/dre/home, you see a link to Legislaçao Covid-19. Some acts can be viewed as a consolidated version. One of the Covid-19 decree-laws is on its 36th amendment! I use deepl.com as translation tool.

 

[Kanga]

I tried but AAAAAh too hard when not in English. No matter, I'm sanguine. Lots of time yet before leave.

 

[Kathor1]

I tried but AAAAAh too hard when not in English. No matter, I'm sanguine. Lots of time yet before leave.

Can't think of a better way to learn a bit of Portuguese! Covid-19 legislation has done wonders for my passive foreign language knowledge, in particular in Spanish.

 

[Skybo]

Wonderful news

 

[auburnfive]

Official word from Visit Portugal. Hooray!

 

[steppingpono]

I posted the comment below in an older and longer thread but, for practical reasons, it now marks the start of this new thread. Therefore, some additional explanation: The Portuguese government has worked out new legislation that is in effect since Saturday 19 February 2022 (one Decree, one Resolution and one Order). Order n.º 2181-B/2022 is listing Canada together with Brazil, the USA and the UK as countries from where non-essential travel to Portugal is allowed. Dre.pt is the official website where laws, decrees etc. are published in Portugal. The new legislation is on Dre.pt but other websites, like Visitportugal, Re-open EU or airline websites, may only get updated after this weekend. Here's what I wrote earlier:​

Yay, my Canadian forum friends, you are back in the game : Despacho n.º 2181-B/2022 has now this list: De passageiros provenientes do Brasil, do Canadá, dos Estados Unidos da América e do Reino Unido.

Non-essential travel from Brazil, Canada, the United States and the United Kingdom is allowed as of today 19 February 2022!

Emails to embassies, government officials, parliamentary representatives, and alerting the press, in Canada and in Portugal, have brought fruit. Well done!

Yay!!!!!!
I hope the Aussies get good news soon too

 

[Kathor1]

Below is a shortened translated extract from Order n.º 2181-B/2022. In my humble opinion, travellers from Australia are covered by point 1c; travellers from Canada and the USA are covered by point 1e; travellers from New Zealand are covered by point 1b (NZ has joined) but also by point 1d (NZ is on the EU white list).

Note: This is merely about the authorisation to enter. There may be additional requirements, for example pre-flight tests, depending to which authorisation category a traveller belongs.

It's really quite simple.

1. As to entry into national territory of Portugal, essential and non-essential trips are only authorized for the following categories of passengers arriving by plane:​

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a) passengers coming from countries of the EU and countries associated to the Schengen Area (Liechtenstein, Norway, Iceland and Switzerland);​

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b) passengers holding an EU COVID Digital Certificate and passengers holding a certificate issued by a non-EU country that has joined the EU Digital COVID Certificate system, based on EU equivalence decisions. ;​

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c) passengers holding other certificates of vaccination or recovery recognised under the terms of this Order;​

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d) passengers coming from countries whose epidemiological situation is in accordance with Recommendation (EU) 2020/912;​

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e) passengers from Brazil, Canada, the United States of America and the United Kingdom.​

 

[Ellann]

So lets see what happens with Australia! We are still in a state of total confusion.

I totally agree, I get updates from Smart Traveller as things change and we definitely cannot enter Portugal unless for "essential travel". I don't get it, because daily Covid cases are much higher in Brazil and USA. It seems rather unfair, but for me I am so glad I postponed my Camino from May to September, but who knows what hysteria might be in place by then.

 

[jsalt]

Yay!!!!!!
I hope the Aussies get good news soon too

And the South Africans - don't forget us

 

[steppingpono]

And the South Africans - don't forget us

Ag sorry man of course

 

[Kathor1]

Having dived into Portuguese regulations about Covid-19 travel restrictions recently and having read some of the reasoning in it, I had a question for which I found an answer in a Wikipedia article about Portuguese people. The article has a list of regions with significant populations. A copy of it is below, I've removed the EU+ countries. Portugal itself has a population of about 10,500,000 people.

Brazil	c. 10,800,000 (includes Portuguese nationals and their descendants down to the third generation; excludes many of more distant ancestry)
United_States	1,471,549 (Portuguese ancestry)
Venezuela	1,300,000 (ancestry); (additional 55,441 Portuguese born)
South_Africa	700,000
Canada	550 000 (Portuguese ancestry)
Angola	500,000
United_Kingdom	372,166

This helps to explain some of the reasons for a list about travel restrictions that includes Brazil, the USA and Canada but not Australia. Already in 2021, travellers from these three countries (and a few others) had been given a more privileged access than those from many other non-EU countries.

 

[Kathor1]

The EU countries have finally agreed upon and adopted a new Recommendation that was floated about three months ago: a shift from the current hybrid country/person-based approach to a purely person-based approach where travel restrictions are solely based on the vaccination status.

Since it was the 27 EU governments themselves who negotiated and agreed on this text one can only hope that they will finally all implement the same rules in their national law and end this patchwork set of rules and confusion for travellers from outside of the EU.

The ever changing ‘EU white list’ of countries is likely to be abolished by the end of April.

COVID-19: Council updates recommendation on non-essential travel from third countries

Under this recommendation, COVID-19 restrictions should be applied taking into account both the situation in the third country and the individual status of the person.

www.consilium.europa.eu

COVID-19: travel measures

Find the overview of COVID-19 travel measures to travel between EU countries and into the EU from another country.

www.consilium.europa.eu

 

[Kanga]

I received an email today from our Government "Smart Traveller" website informing me (regarding Portugal): "Direct travel from Australia is currently limited to essential purposes only, unless you have an EU COVID-19 vaccination certificate. Australian passport holders can still enter Portugal for ‘non-essential’ purposes from elsewhere in the EU or approved third countries."

The EU advice (thank you @Kathar1na) says an EU vaccination certificate or "EU equivalent vaccination certificate". I can't find a way of getting the EU Covid-19 vaccination certificate in Australia, so I hope the Australian will be considered the equivalent..

The EU also recommends that entry (with certificate) be allowed for all purposes if the country has less than 100 cases per 100,000 residents (which is us) and testing rates of more than 600 per 100,000 (again, we fall into that category by a long way).

If I have to go through Madrid, I will. But still a long way off (mid April). No worries!

 

[Kathor1]

EU vaccination certificate or "EU equivalent vaccination certificate"

This bugs me no end .

Or rather, what bugs me is the lack of clarity on so many websites. The use of confusing terms like recognised as valid, recognised as equivalent, mutually recognised, without clear definitions of what they mean and translated into bad English to boot. I apologise for quoting this because it must be boring for most people. It is the text in the current version, and it's been like this for months, since the middle of 2021 at least! EU Countries should or could accept three kinds of proof: (1) the EU DCC issued by EU countries; (2) the officially recognised equivalents to the EU DCC issued by non-EU countries and recognised by a legal act of the European Commission; (3) other certificates as long as they contain sufficient data about the vaccine and the vaccination.

In addition to EU Digital COVID certificates (1), Member States should accept such proofs of COVID-19 vaccination if they correspond to certificates having been recognised as equivalent (2) to those issued in accordance with Regulation (EU) 2021/953 in an implementing act adopted by the Commission.​

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Where no such act concerning certificates issued by a third country has been adopted, Member States could accept, in accordance with national law, a proof of testing and vaccination issued by the third country (3) taking into account the need to be able to verify the authenticity, validity and integrity of the certificate and whether it contains all relevant data as provided for in Regulation (EU) 2021/953.​

​

As to point (3), is it: Portugal and Spain could but Portugal won't and Spain does?

 

[dougfitz]

I received an email today from our Government "Smart Traveller" website information me (regarding Portugal): "Direct travel from Australia is currently limited to essential purposes only, unless you have an EU COVID-19 vaccination certificate. Australian passport holders can still enter Portugal for ‘non-essential’ purposes from elsewhere in the EU or approved third countries."

The EU advice (thank you @Kathar1na) says an EU vaccination certificate or "EU equivalent vaccination certificate". I can't find a way of getting the EU Covid-19 vaccination certificate in Australia, so I hope the Australian will be considered the equivalent..

The EU also recommends that entry (with certificate) be allowed for all purposes if the country has less than 100 cases per 100,000 residents (which is us) and testing rates of more than 600 per 100,000 (again, we fall into that category by a long way).

If I have to go through Madrid, I will. But still a long way off (mid April). No worries!

I contacted the Embassy of Portugal today after seeing that message from Smartraveller. In their email response, they stated:

For people flying directly from Australia to Portugal, travel is currently only allowed for essential purposes (professional, study, family reunion and for health or humanitarian reasons). This situation will be changing in the next few weeks as there is an ongoing process for the Australian Covid-19 vaccination certificates to be duly recognised in Portugal and therefore essential and non-essential travel will be permitted for travelers flying directly from Australia when that process in legally concluded.

We advise you to check for any updates at the following Visit Portugal Website, as these measures can change at any time due to the pandemic situation being so inconstant:

https://www.visitportugal.com/en/content/covid-19-measures-implemented-portugal

(emphasis added)

The first part of the response is a pretty straightforward extract from the official website, but what follows, which I have emphasised, gives me hope that the Australian Government International Vaccination Certificate will be accepted by the time I leave. I will remain optimistic.

 

[Friend from Barquinha]

If I have to go through Madrid, I will. But still a long way off (mid April). No worries!

The run through Madrid actually worked pretty well. The high-speed to Vigo was about 2 1/2 hours, and then the Vigo-Porto train ran twice a day: 8:30 in the morning and 7:30 at night. So you could do it without overnighting, I think.