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Here are the 12 countries and territories on the travel Green List

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The Government has announced the countries and territories on the initial Green List.

This applies only to England. Different rules may apply to those who live in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland but no announcements have been made yet.

International leisure travel will once again be permitted from the 17th May. To facilitate the move, the UK Government has announced it is moving to a traffic light system that will categorise countries based on:

  • the percentage of people vaccinated
  • the number of Covid-19 infections
  • whether there are any variants of concern
  • the reliability of the country’s testing and genomic sequencing facilities

Each country will be labelled ‘Green,’ ‘Amber’ or ‘Red,’ with varying entry requirements when you return to the UK.

12 countries and a number of territories are on the initial Green List.

The list will be updated every three weeks.

This is how the categories are defined:

Green countries: You will need to take a pre-departure test (can be lateral flow) as well as a PCR test on or before day 2 of your return into England. You will not need to quarantine unless or take additional tests unless your tests come back positive.

Amber countries: You will need to take a pre-departure test before returning to England and must quarantine at home for 10 days, taking a PCR test on day 2 and day 8. You can choose to take an additional PCR test on day 5 under the optional ‘Test to Release’ scheme, which allow you to end your quarantine early.

Red countries: You will be subject to a 10-day quarantine in a managed quarantine hotel, with testing prior to your arrival in England as well as on day 2 and day 8. You cannot reduce your quarantine period and must pay for the hotel.

In addition to the three traffic light restrictions the Government has also promised a ‘Green watchlist’. This will be used to to indicate countries that are currently categorised as Green countries but are likely to drop to Amber or Red shortly. No countries are on this list so far.

Which countries are on the Green List?

Here are the countries on the initial UK Government travel Green List.

  • Australia
  • Brunei
  • Falkland Islands
  • Faroe Islands
  • Gibraltar
  • Iceland
  • Israel
  • New Zealand
  • Portugal, the Azores and Madeira
  • Saint Helena, Ascension and Tristan da Cunha
  • Singapore
  • South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands

For clarity, just because a country is on the Green List does not mean that you will be allowed to enter.

You will need to meet the local requirements regarding vaccination and/or testing.

The Government has confirmed that you should be able to access your vaccination status on the NHS app by 17th May. If not, or if you do not have a smartphone, a letter will be available – this can only be requested by calling 119 from 17th May.

Which countries are on the Red List?

Here are the countries on the Red List. Turkey, the Maldives and Nepal were added today. Anyone returning from these countries will be required to undertake 10 days of hotel quarantine.

  • Angola
  • Argentina
  • Bangladesh
  • Bolivia
  • Botswana
  • Brazil
  • Burundi
  • Cape Verde
  • Chile
  • Colombia
  • Democratic Republic of the Congo
  • Ecuador
  • Eswatini
  • Ethiopia
  • French Guiana
  • Guyana
  • India
  • Kenya
  • Lesotho
  • Malawi
  • Maldives
  • Mozambique
  • Namibia
  • Nepal
  • Oman
  • Pakistan
  • Panama
  • Paraguay
  • Peru
  • Philippines
  • Qatar
  • Rwanda
  • Seychelles
  • Somalia
  • South Africa
  • Suriname
  • Tanzania
  • Turkey
  • United Arab Emirates (UAE)
  • Uruguay
  • Venezuela
  • Zambia
  • Zimbabwe

What countries are on the Amber list?

Any country or territory not listed above will be on the Amber list. This will require 10 days of home quarantine.

You can see the full Amber list on this page of gov.uk.

What are the cheapest covid testing providers?

You will not be able to use NHS testing facilities for travel: you must pay for private tests.

The cheapest PCR test at present is provided by Eurofins, from £44.90 for an at-home test kit.

You can compare all Government-approved covid testing providers on this helpful page of gov.uk.

Comment

British Airways CEO Sean Doyle said in a statement:

“We’re pleased that our customers are able to start travelling again to some countries, including Portugal, and we’ve put on additional flights from London, Manchester, Newcastle and Edinburgh to Faro to help people get moving.

What’s clear is that with high levels of vaccination in the UK being matched by other countries, we should see more destinations going ‘green’ before the end of June.  It’s disappointing to hear that despite the stringent safeguards introduced for travel from ‘amber list’ countries, the Government is now suggesting travellers avoid these.

We cannot stress more greatly that the UK urgently needs travel between it and other low-risk countries, like the US, to re-start the economy, support devastated industries and reunite loved ones.“

We will update this article later with more information as it is released.

Category

General

Comments (290)

This article is closed to new comments. Feel free to ask your question in the HfP forums.

  • kitten says:
    8 May8 May 13:35

    Hey Rhys / Rob

    I like you changed the colour of the text itself to green / amber / red on the list early in the article above.

    Would you consider changing the text colour of each heading (title line) of the sections below accordingly, too?

    • Rob says:
      8 May8 May 13:47

      For boring tech reasons (heading style setting are fixed) we can’t do that, oddly. I think.

  • Henry Young says:
    8 May8 May 14:16

    Australia may be green listed, but my reading of the rules concludes that if you flew Qatar, that would red list you even for a 1 hour transit at Doha. So be careful about your routing. Whether the red listing of Qatar is more of a political / commercial move, we can debate another day 😉

    • Blenz101 says:
      8 May8 May 14:49

      Your reading is of course correct of course for any inbound travel to the UK, you pick up the status of the highest country you have passed through via any transport method.

      The transport secretary is on record about the ME3’s red list clarification is driven by their status as a global travel hub and not by any science/data on the ground.

      • Andrew says:
        8 May8 May 19:00

        Singapore Airlines would be your best (only?) option to fly from Australia to the U.K. and be a green country arrival.

        • Louie says:
          8 May8 May 23:25

          Or non-stop Qantas from Darwin. Doesn’t sound like much fun though.

          • Wally1976 says:
            9 May9 May 08:19

            Could be wrong but I thought the direct Qantas flight was from Perth?

  • Henry Young says:
    8 May8 May 14:27

    Currently in Philippines (red listed) planning to visit UK in June. Not wanting to serve 10 days detention in solitary confinement, secured by one of UK’s private prison operators (G4S), paying £1750 for the privilege, I plan to first stop off in Belgrade (amber) for 10 days. Airbnb apartments are going for £20 per night. Strikes me as a far better use of my money !

    • kitten says:
      8 May8 May 14:57

      Beware I think you have to do something like 12 to be sure not 10, something to do with how they count the days. Don’t skimp it.

      • Pablo says:
        8 May8 May 17:20

        Hypothetical question. Could a dual passport holder travelling from a red country to the UK via an amber country stay just a couple of days in an amber country if they used their non-UK passport for the first leg and their uk passport for the final leg to the UK as long as the flights were separate bookings? Would Border Force find out?

        • Blenz101 says:
          8 May8 May 18:07

          You have to complete a passenger locator form listing your travel history.

          Wouldn’t suggest lying on this.

          Who knows what gaps the switching of passports will create in the API border force will be looking at.

          Getting caught would be a disaster and will get little sympathy.

        • James says:
          8 May8 May 23:30

          Pablo – Pablo, Pablo – of course it would work but not recommended

          • Yuff says:
            9 May9 May 08:56

            Lol……I should not think they needed a whistle blower to catch the CEO out just ask him where the stamp was in his British passport for entering Switzerland. One of the benefits of Brexit the passports are stamped in a lot more countries with direct flights to the UK.

        • Track says:
          9 May9 May 05:54

          He must’ve been an beacon of leadership to his staff. Daily Mail says:

          The MoS understands that a whistleblower in either the UAE or Switzerland contacted a British Embassy after hearing Mr Hogan boast about his travel arrangements.

          Foreign Office officials are believed to have passed the intelligence on to the Border Force, which launched a probe.

        • TGLoyalty says:
          9 May9 May 08:41

          I doubt Pablo is a well known exCEO who will have as whistleblower.

  • Arran says:
    8 May8 May 14:32

    Wonder what happened to that special relationship? USA is on par with us for vaccine rates and constantly hearing “we are talking to the US government” but nothing to show for it

    • Harry T says:
      8 May8 May 16:50

      USA still has many cases and they aren’t open to us. I’m sure the obstacles are mostly political, though, and I wouldn’t be surprised if a travel corridor opens up by June/July.

    • TimM says:
      9 May9 May 06:18

      Unfortunately the take up rate for vaccinations is falling off in the US due to the prevalence of ‘vaccine hesitancy’. Fauci has said Biden’s 70% 4th July target may never be met. I can see the UK government starting to divide the US by state for their ‘traffic light’ scheme.

  • Karen says:
    8 May8 May 16:22

    Hi – can someone tell me if you can use the NHS free Lateral Flow tests you can pick up at pharmacies as testing to return to the UK or do you need to use a private provider? Thanks

    • Tracey says:
      8 May8 May 22:23

      At the moment you can’t use the NHS tests, but there is talk about that being allowed in the future.

      • James says:
        8 May8 May 23:54

        Grunt said (previously, not the most recent PR event) that you/ we can use the free NHS LF tests for the first test coming back to UK from abroad.

        So worth getting a few in, just in case that’s true.

        • TimM says:
          9 May9 May 08:22

          Logically, it should be a free LF test shortly after return and if that looks positive a free PCR test, a few days later, as it is mostly for data collection purposes, genomic sequencing etc.. and all of this in self-isolation. If you were actually ill you would be getting medical attention regardless of any test results.

        • Karen Chater says:
          9 May9 May 09:41

          Thanks James and all. It’s just not clear on gov.uk that it needs to be a private provider. It’s clear the PCR tests must be private providers. I’ll get a few in just in case!

          • TGLoyalty says:
            9 May9 May 10:19

            Support your local community pharmacy at the same time

  • GeorgeJ says:
    8 May8 May 20:02

    Thanks for doing this though it just highlights how subjective it still is.
    It shows the incidence of positive tests in visitors arriving from the green and new red list countries.
    The Maldives should probably feel hard done by, they seem to have just as good results as many of the green list countries and they have gone red.

  • Henry Young says:
    9 May9 May 14:50

    I wonder how much Qatar will end up paying for its green listing. Of course we’ll never know. But with the FIFA World Cup coming up in 2022 …..

  • Tom says:
    9 May9 May 15:11

    Is it risky to fly to Portugal via Munich on Lufthansa? From what I can see online you can transit on a flight from the UK…any advice would be welcome.

    • Alex says:
      9 May9 May 16:21

      In the 10 days prior to returning to the UK, you need to abide the rules of the highest traffic light country. So if you go to Portugal via Munich and go back to uk direct from Portugal after 10 days have passed, you’d declare a green country and only need 1 PCR within 72hrs.

      If you fly via Munich on the way back OR spend less than 10 days in Portugal you’d have to declare Amber and self isolate at home. (Providing Munich doesn’t become green by time of travel).

      I would recommend a direct flight without doubt to save any potential hassle

    • Tom says:
      10 May10 May 07:26

      Thank you both!

This article is closed to new comments. Feel free to ask your question in the HfP forums.

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