Spain weekly update on entry requirements from third countries [7-13 February 2022]

The Ministry of Health of Spain has modified the list of third countries that are not considered at risk.

New data about COVID-19 infections in Chile has taken the Spanish authorities to remove this Latinamerican country from the list, meaning that from 7 February 2022 to 13 February 2022, only Indonesia, New Zealand, Rwanda, Saudi Arabia, South Korea, and China are exempt from international travel restrictions to Spain.

As usual, China’s special administrative regions of Hong Kong and Macau are included, as well as the territorial authority of Taiwan (which is not recognized as a state by at least one member state of the European Union).

This update follows the criteria and measures indicated in the EU Council’s Recommendation 2020/912 on “the temporary restriction of non-essential travel to the EU and the possible lifting of said restriction”. As always, it will be reviewed within 7 days.

Meanwhile, the list of risk countries in the European continent has not varied. The European countries that are considered at risk for international travel to Spain are Norway, Finland, Sweden, Denmark, Estonia, Lithuania, Latvia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Belgium, Bulgaria, Austria, Germany, France, Italy, Portugal, Greece, Croatia, Cyprus, Luxembourg, Malta, Czech Republic, Poland, Liechtenstein, Romania, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, and the Netherlands.

In this case, the Spanish authorities follow the guidelines included in the Council Recommendation (EU) 2020/1475 and Council Recommendation (EU) 2021/119.

What does coming from a risk country imply?

All travelers who plan to go to Spain via air or via sea must fill in the Health Control Form before departure and obtain a QR code to present at the health controls in the Spanish borders. Travelers who plan to arrive in Spain via road are not obliged to complete the Health Control Form as of now.

The Health Control Form and the QR code will indicate if the traveler is coming from a risk area and determine the requirements before and after arrival in Spain.

People coming from risk countries in the European Union must present an EU COVID Digital Certificate, which is valid in all EU member states from March 17th, 2021.

The EU COVID Digital Certificate shows if the individuals are fully vaccinated, if they are going through an active infection, or if they have caught the infection in the recent past.

People coming to Spain from third countries can’t obtain an EU COVID Digital Certificate, but they can present equivalent certificates that are locally valid and meet the same requirements as the EU COVID Digital Certificate.

• In the case of vaccination certificates, they must reflect the administration of a third dose or booster dose in compliance with Spain’s latest COVID-19 vaccination strategy, which considers the vaccination schedule complete only after the booster dose has been administered. This is due to the booster dose’s proven efficacy against the Omicron variant, which has spread across the world.
• The vaccines in the vaccination certificate must be the ones that are authorized by the World Health Organization (WHO) or the European Medicines Agency (EMA) —at least the third dose. If this is not the case, the vaccination schedule will not be considered complete or valid.
• If the traveler opts for a COVID-19 diagnostic test, he or she must take a nucleic acid amplification test (CRISPR, PCR, TMA, etc.) not earlier than 72 hours before arrival in Spain. If he or she chooses to take a rapid antigen test, it will only be valid for 24 hours so he/she should take it the day before the arrival date in Spain. The results should be ready when the traveler arrives at the Spanish border, and of course, they should be negative for entry to be allowed.
• COVID-19 recovery certificates will only be valid from day 11 after a positive test and up to 180 days (6 months) after the positive test.