Which countries will now accept the NHS covid vaccination app?

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• HH says:

  31 Oct31 October 12:34

  So is Switzerland breaking its agreement with the EU by still not accepting NHS QRs despite EU equivalence? Has anyone raised this with the UK Embassy in Berne?

  • Luke says:

    31 Oct31 October 13:38

    I don’t think so. Why do you think that?

    • HH says:

      31 Oct31 October 14:17

      On Friday the European Commission adopted decision 2021/1895 that gives UK certificates equivalence to those issued in EU countries under regulation 2021/953.

      Switzerland is not (yet) recognising and accepting them under the same conditions as an EU certificate, despite the EU declaring them equivalent.

      • Luke says:

        31 Oct31 October 15:41

        What is your data source for this to be the case?

        • Alun says:

          31 Oct31 October 16:04

          You can download, at least in Switzerland, the swiss COVID checker, and Scottish NHS certificate is ok but English and Welsh are not. Nhs also don’t show booster so original vaccination >180 days so you can’t get it from Kanton.

  • ChrisC says:

    31 Oct31 October 14:38

    Have you raised it with the Embassy?

    • HH says:

      31 Oct31 October 14:57

      My next trip is later in November, so I’ll give them a couple of days to see if they update the Swiss app / guidance.

• Jude says:

  31 Oct31 October 12:37

  Used the NHS pass in Italy two weeks ago, but were dinosaurs (we are 70!) and actually printed it out as a ‘belt and braces’ measure. Most places asked for it and the only museum that couldn’t read it let us through anyway. My only problem was trying to uploadit to the UK PLF….

  • andyT says:

    31 Oct31 October 12:45

    I was in Italy in June, Austria and Poland in September. My NHS app was accepted everywhere without any problems.

• William says:

  31 Oct31 October 13:32

  When I went to Italy earlier in October, found that the QR code generated real-time in the NHS app, and the ones saved in Apple Wallet is not recognised. Only the QR code in the offline PDF version was recognised without a problem.

• Alex Sm says:

  31 Oct31 October 14:12

  My partner and I have faced a patchy acceptance off UK certificates in Greece the other week. Some restaurants and bars scanned the first dose code and it didn’t work, then they scanned the second those code, and it worked. We were allowed in. Other places (maybe using different apps) scanned all possible codes we had, and none worked. We couldn’t get to one or two bars in the end or had to sit outside

  • Jude says:

    31 Oct31 October 14:14

    Ah…it’s a tough life, Alex…..

• Kieran says:

  31 Oct31 October 14:45

  Hi all,

  I see that the NHS COVID Pass is now accepted but does anyone know if Scotland’s Test and Protect COVID status is also now accepted? The EU website seems very vague on the issue and the fact there are different apps in different parts of the UK doesn’t seem to be mentioned in any of the press releases.

• Paul says:

  31 Oct31 October 17:04

  “This makes your life far easier when trying to get into restaurants and other venues.”

  Of course it needn’t have been difficult but for the immense stupidity of the Brexit vote!

  Making life easier now is good but of course it still remains a great deal more challenging than it previous was.

  The EU nations have far lower death rates and hospitalisation numbers because they have had the EU passport for many months and use them.

  • Pete1968 says:

    31 Oct31 October 17:46

    1. Brexit: we are where we are & have to move on. Not for me to say if the younger generation will certainly push to re-join the EU in (say) 20 years, no doubt on far worse terms than we had.
    2. The EU countries don’t actually have significantly worse Covid-19 figures on average – they simply measure things differently. It’s a widely-spread virus and affects all of Europe pretty much the same way. Same deaths over time ie 2 years. The main countries to have got away with it before the vaccines changed things for us all are China, Oz and NZ. Totalitarian lockdown/ democratic lockdown & closed borders verging on totalitarian/ democratic lockdown & closed borders verging on totalitarian.

    • Pete1968 says:

      31 Oct31 October 17:47

      edit – worse = better

      • Pete1968 says:

        31 Oct31 October 17:50

        edit – for 1. Brexit, worse = much worse

• NFH says:

  31 Oct31 October 17:37

  You can test the QR code readers used by venues in each country before you travel, so you don’t need to wait until you arrive in a country to find out whether venues will accept your QR code.

  As others reported above, the Swiss app gives an error with an NHS QR code, but the countries’ apps above are fine with my NHS app, NHS in Apple Wallet and NHS on my Apple Watch.

  • HH says:

    31 Oct31 October 19:23

    As of this evening, Switzerland’s app works with my NHS England Dose 2 QR, but only after I generated a new one in the NHS app / added it to Wallet / imported it into the Swiss app. All now give Verification Successful in their Covid Check app.

    • NFH says:

      31 Oct31 October 19:40

      Thanks. I confirm the same. This afternoon, the Swiss app was saying “The COVID certificate does not have a valid signature“, but after generating the QR code again in the NHS app, it’s now accepted. The old one that I saved this afternoon is still not accepted. This means the NHS changed something this afternoon.

      • HH says:

        31 Oct31 October 19:48

        Yep, exactly the same here. UK must have turned on something to do with generating EU-compliant codes tonight.

        • NFH says:

          31 Oct31 October 19:51

          Only Switzerland was a problem. The French and Italian apps were reading my NHS QR code earlier this afternoon without a problem. My guess is that Switzerland is more fussy about digital signatures than France or Italy. The Swiss were probably right; they usually are.

        • Roy says:

          31 Oct31 October 21:13

          My guess is that Switzerland is sticking to perhaps the letter of the law and only accepting UK QR codes generated on our after the date that we joined….?

• Marcin says:

  31 Oct31 October 17:59

  How do you actually prove your status? Looking at the NHS England app, do you use the domestic certificate? Or the one intended for travel (where 2 barcodes are shown)

  • NFH says:

    31 Oct31 October 18:41

    You need to use the travel QR code in your NHS app that says “Dose 2 of 2” underneath it. The QR code for your first dose won’t be accepted.

    • Katie says:

      31 Oct31 October 18:47

      Is the PDF acceptable or only the 10 day wait letter one? (if no mobile phone or battery)

      • NFH says:

        31 Oct31 October 19:33

        I would say that the PDF will be more reliable that the letter, because the PDF is just the same QR codes in printable A4 format.

        • Roy says:

          31 Oct31 October 21:10

          Personally would carry both (if no mobile phone) just to cover all bases.

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