No Travel Restrictions Ahead of Christmas

Spain Doesn’t Plan to Facilitate Travel Restrictions Ahead of Christmas

Despite the fact that Christmas is approaching, the latest update made by the Spanish authorities has shown that the country will continue to keep in place entry restrictions against the majority of arrivals.

According to the new categorisation of countries that starts being effective from today, December 13, even though more people plan on taking a trip during the upcoming week, Spain will still require travellers from risk and high-risk areas to comply with its tight entry restrictions.

Currently, Spain permits entry for all fully vaccinated travellers, including those from a country that falls under the risk list, without imposing any additional entry measures.

Risk List

Through the latest update, the Spanish authorities have explained that the risk list continues to include Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Czechia, Cyprus, Croatia, Denmark, Germany, Slovenia, Estonia, Finland, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Iceland, Italy, Slovakia, Latvia, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Norway, the Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Romania, and Sweden.

This means that travellers from all the above-mentioned EU/Schengen Area countries can travel to Spain as long as they meet all entry rules.

Persons who reach Spain from one of these 28 countries are permitted entry as long as they present a valid vaccination certificate that indicates that the holder has been fully immunised against the virus with one of the vaccines that Spain recognises for travel.

Those who hold a recovery certificate are also permitted to enter Spain under facilitated rules, provided that the certificate is not older than 180 days.

In contrast, EU/Schengen Area nationals who don’t hold one of the two documents mentioned above can enter Spain only if they provide a negative PCR or rapid antigen test result.

The PCR test must be carried out within 72 hours before entering Spain, whereas the rapid antigen test must not be older than 48 hours at the time of arrival.

“Children under 12 years of age are not required to present these certificates or supporting documents,” the Spanish authorities highlighted.

On the other hand, Spain is keeping strict entry rules against arrivals from countries that currently fall under the high-risk list.

High Risk Countries

Spain’s high-risk list includes nine African countries at the moment. These countries are Botswana, Eswatini, Lesotho, Malawi, Mozambique, Namibia, South Africa, Zambia, and Zimbabwe.

All persons who enter Spain after staying in one of the areas mentioned above must present a negative PCR test result that has been taken within 72 hours before arrival as well as provide a completed Travel Health form.

Many thanks to our friends SchengenVisaInfo