Canada, South Africa and 27 others move to France’s travel green list

France updated its travel rules list again yesterday (March 3), moving 29 countries to green: the category with the lowest number of travel restrictions.

The countries are: Angola, Argentina, Bahamas, Bangladesh, Benin, Bolivia, Botswana, Canada, Comoros, Djibouti, Dominican Republic, Eswatini, India, Irak, Jamaica, Kazakhstan, Kenya, Lesotho, Namibia, Oman, Pakistan, Paraguay, Peru, Philippines, St Kitts and Nevis, El Salvador, South Africa, Zambia and Zimbabwe.

They join every EU member state as well as: Andorra, Iceland, Liechtenstein, Monaco, Norway, San Marino, Switzerland and the Vatican in Europe.

Other countries and territories on green include: Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Cambodia, Cape Verde, Chad, Colombia, Côte d'Ivoire, Cuba, Ecuador, Fiji, Gabon, Ghana, Guinea, Equatorial Guinea, Guinea Bissau, Honduras, Hong Kong, Mauritius, Indonesia, Japan, Kuwait, Laos, Morocco, New Zealand, Uganda, Qatar, Rwanda, Samoa, Senegal, South Korea, Sri Lanka, Taiwan, Tanzania, Togo, Vanuatu, Venezuela, Vietnam and UAE.

Green-list countries are described as being places where there is a “negligible or moderate circulation of the virus and no variants of concern emerging.”

Fully vaccinated people coming from a green-list country need only show their vaccination certificate to enter France. Unvaccinated people must show the result of a PCR test taken in the 72 hours before or an antigen test taken in the 48 hours before, or a certificate of recovery from Covid.

This is slightly different to the rules applied to orange-list countries, whose vaccinated travellers must present a sworn statement confirming that they are not experiencing Covid symptoms as well as their vaccination records.

Unvaccinated travellers must have an essential reason for travel, carry out a pre-departure test within the timeframes outlined above and complete their sworn statement.

There are currently no countries on France’s red list for travel, which will only return if a new variant with greater transmissibility or immune escape emerges. In this case an “emergency brake” system will be applied and pre-departure tests will be reintroduced even for vaccinated travellers.

This may also be accompanied by post-arrival test and quarantine measures.

You can see more about France’s travel rules on the interior ministry website.

Related stories

Travel to France: What paperwork do I need now if fully vaccinated?

Faster ferries, new air routes and six other France travel updates

Traffic jams, new UK air route, strikes: Eight France travel updates