Entry into Portugal

Does anyone know if the current rules for entry into Portugal take one's travel history into account with, for example, a 7 day or 14 day lookback rule?

The CNN website says: "Portugal is currently open to US citizens. Testing is required; quarantine is a possibility."

The US News website says: "U.S. citizens can visit Portugal’s charming cities and scenic coastline as long as they show proof of a negative coronavirus test taken no more than 72 hours before arrival (or 48 hours in the case of an antigen test)."

The US Embassy in Portugal says: "Non-essential travel (i.e., tourist travel) from the United States to Portugal is currently permitted for travelers with proof of a negative COVID-19 test (see below for testing details). .... Current regulations allow U.S. citizens to travel directly from the United States to Portugal for non-essential travel (i.e. tourism) with proof of an accepted COVID-19 test."

The TAP airlines website says: "entry into Portuguese territory is only authorized for:

Passengers on flights from countries belonging to the European Union, countries associated with the Schengen Area (Liechtenstein, Norway, Iceland and Switzerland), the United Kingdom, the United States of America, Canada and Brazil.

.....

For Continental Portugal, as a final destination, in transit or transfer, it is mandatory that passengers complete an online form after completing their check-in, proof of which will need to be presented at control points.

The "online form" contains only identification information which presumably would be used for contact tracing. It does not request any information regarding travel history.

If legally permitted, I plan to enter Portugal on September 18 or 19 flying from LHR, having previously arrived in the UK from the US. However, within the 14 day lookback period, I would have been in Guatemala.

While this may not be relevant, the UK considers both the US and Guatemala to be in the Amber category.

Does anyone know whether or not this will be a problem for me?

Has any American recently been to Portugal and can comment on the process?

Thanks Tino.

I'm happy to report that my entry into Portugal last Saturday went very smoothly. For starters, no one from BA asked to see my passenger locator form or Covid test prior to boarding. No one from health services asked about either one before I hit the immigration window (or after either).

The immigration officer took my passport and boarding pass (flight was from LHR on BA) but returned my boarding pass without looking at it. Her first comment was "I need to see your Covid test." As I started to look for it on my cell phone, she added "or your vaccination certificate". I immediately switched to pulling out my vaccination card (USA - Pfizer) and I passed that to her. She looked it over and didn't seem too impressed. She said "Didn't you ...?" something which I didn't quite understand.

So I said, "Well I also have my Covid test. I took it in MIami yesterday." At that, she stamped my passport and said "Have a nice trip."

She did not ask me why I was coming to Portugal nor how long I was planning to stay.

Since my goal is always to get through immigration with the least amount of hassle, I was very pleased. No problems in customs either.

Replies

Calvin Schrotenboer September 22, 2021 at 12:46am

Merry Jo Binkley said:

We are leaving for Spain on Tuesday and will tour a couple of weeks before heading to Portugal on October. 9th. I'm doing research now and would welcome any information. Thank you.

Merry Jo - crossing the border from Spain into Portugal should likely be about like driving from Connecticut into Massachusetts. I haven't done it here but it's my understanding that there are no crossing guards. In July I drove many times between Germany, Belgium and the Netherlands and none of the borders had any restrictions whatsoever. The Portuguese government website has a section dealing with arrivals by car.

On the other hand, if you are flying, both Spain and Portugal are members of the Schengen group so there are no immigration officers at either end of the flight.

I considered entering Portugal via Spain but I chose to fly via London instead. Spain has a look back rule (either 10 days or 14 days) and I had been in Guatemala -- which would have been a problem in Spain but not in either the UK or Portugal.
Calvin Schrotenboer September 22, 2021 at 12:40am

Thanks Tino.

I'm happy to report that my entry into Portugal last Saturday went very smoothly. For starters, no one from BA asked to see my passenger locator form or Covid test prior to boarding. No one from health services asked about either one before I hit the immigration window (or after either).

The immigration officer took my passport and boarding pass (flight was from LHR on BA) but returned my boarding pass without looking at it. Her first comment was "I need to see your Covid test." As I started to look for it on my cell phone, she added "or your vaccination certificate". I immediately switched to pulling out my vaccination card (USA - Pfizer) and I passed that to her. She looked it over and didn't seem too impressed. She said "Didn't you ...?" something which I didn't quite understand.

So I said, "Well I also have my Covid test. I took it in MIami yesterday." At that, she stamped my passport and said "Have a nice trip."

She did not ask me why I was coming to Portugal nor how long I was planning to stay.

Since my goal is always to get through immigration with the least amount of hassle, I was very pleased. No problems in customs either.
Merry Jo Binkley September 19, 2021 at 7:20am

We are leaving for Spain on Tuesday and will tour a couple of weeks before heading to Portugal on October. 9th. I'm doing research now and would welcome any information. Thank you.
Tino Alfred Offner September 16, 2021 at 6:25pm

you need to register here:

https://portugalcleanandsafe.pt/en/passenger-locator-card

you need

Taan Test 72h negative

TRAg Test 48h negative

Travel History 14 Days - south africa, India, Nepal you need a extra registration https://travel.sef.pt/Forms/Default.aspx

So you are good to go.
Calvin Schrotenboer September 9, 2021 at 7:48am

Fantastic. Thanks JoAnn.
Jo Ann Schwartz September 9, 2021 at 6:16am

Hi Cal,

I was in Lisbon on Monday. I was technically in transit coming from Sao Tome on my way back to the US. I wasn't sure if I would be allowed to leave the airport but it was no problem. You are correct that the online form is for tracing - no one but the airline mentioned it. At passport control they only cared about passport and a negative PCR. They looked at my boarding pass that showed I was coming from Sao Tome and asked how long I was staying (I was leaving that night). Not sure if they wanted the used boarding pass or just looked at it because it happened to be in my passport. At this point I did not have a boarding pass for the continuing flights home and they didn't ask for them.

This is the site I've been using to try to figure out the changing Covid restriction landscape.

https://www.iatatravelcentre.com/world.php

and more specifically

https://www.iata.org/en/publications/timatic/widget/

Good luck!

UPDATE!

The widget on the iata.org site seems to now be limited to more of a demo level, but it is available for all countries via United. - https://www.united.com/en/us/timatic?i=timatic

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