The Lemon Fool

Does anyone have any tips or "gotchas" for flying into the US, in relation to the admin (e.g. paperwork for immigration and covid etc) and esp covid testing. I'm going in a couple of weeks and am now about to fix a covid test, which has to be done one day before arrival into the US. I don't think I'll do an "at home" video test because it'll be the first time I'll have done one such video test, and if it doesn't work for some reason, I haven't got very much room to re-do it, so I'm thinking of a supervised test at e.g. Lloyds Pharmacy or elsewhere. I don't mind popping into a near-by pharmacy.

Has anyone got any useful tips esp re the supervised covid test.

TIA

No specific paperwork, although I would not go overseas anywhere without my proof of vaccination, because you never know when it might be needed.

And yes, a test the day before. I would not take a chance on the airport same-day testing centres personally.

What I do is visit the Paddington station test centre the day before, having made a booking. Last time was a few weeks ago and it was £35 for a LFT and £80 for a PCR, which I believe is still what the US requires. Results guaranteed by 10 p.m. that day.

Last time I went to the US there were no checks at immigration, but the airline checks these things before giving you your boarding pass. There was also a simple form that can be completed on your phone via a provided QR code.

The other good news is that nothing is now required on your return to the UK. It is exactly as things were pre-Covid.

Lootman wrote:No specific paperwork, although I would not go overseas anywhere without my proof of vaccination, because you never know when it might be needed.

Many thanks for the tips: all very helpful. Working out precisely which test is needed for US is a bit of a 'mare.
A colleague has recommended an app (https://myverifly.com/) to assist with all the documentation and provide some checking. I think the apps may be airline-affiliated to some extent, and am checking with my airline, but anything has to be better than nothing (and I will have printed copy of everything).

yorkshirelad1 wrote:

Lootman wrote:No specific paperwork, although I would not go overseas anywhere without my proof of vaccination, because you never know when it might be needed.

Many thanks for the tips: all very helpful. Working out precisely which test is needed for US is a bit of a 'mare.
A colleague has recommended an app (https://myverifly.com/) to assist with all the documentation and provide some checking. I think the apps may be airline-affiliated to some extent, and am checking with my airline, but anything has to be better than nothing (and I will have printed copy of everything).

I play it safe with a PCR test. It seems to have the most universal acceptance.

Thanks for the updates. Thought I'd update as I went through early on Sunday morning (Manchester T2). Queues at security didn't seem too bad, I overheard a uniformed person saying 35 minutes. Check in to departure lounge was about an hour.

What did strike me is the number of passengers that don't seem to be prepared or allow enough time for security and therefore have to be "escorted/expedited" by airline staff from coming through security to the gate to get onto the flight. Yes, there are problems with not enough security staff etc but the punters themselves could do a lot to help the situation.

There also seemed to be a fairly relaxed attitude to paperwork (covid test, vaccine cert, etc). Yes, you have to have them, but it was a very cursory check, and it seems the onus is on the airline to ensure compliance, when I arrived in the US, no-one checked any of these documents.

I did the Fit to Fly test (supervised LFT) at a local Lloyds Pharmacy, which was very efficient, and seemed to be satisfactory (£29.99). I could have done a video one, but I didn't feel comfortable with the time frame available if something went wrong, and I'd heard a sugggestion that the US like an "in person" test and I wasn't about to argue what "in person" meant with a US immigration official if push came to shove.