Latest updates 1st November
Some more good news, travel list changes announced yesterday, which will make it easier for more international students to travel to the UK.
From 4am on Monday 1st November, the following changes will come into effect in all four nations:
All remaining countries moving off red list
From 4am on Monday 1 November, the seven remaining countries will come off the UK’s red travel list. They are Panama, Colombia, Venezuela, Peru, Ecuador, Haiti, and the Dominican Republic.
Students arriving after this date from any country will not need to enter the managed hotel quarantine system. They will need to quarantine in their accommodation for ten days unless they meet the conditions to be exempt from quarantine (see details below).
Note: the red list has not disappeared entirely – the government will review the red list every three weeks and countries may be added.
Students from 30 more countries to be exempt from quarantine if eligible
Also on Monday 1 November, 30 more countries will be added to the UK’s approved vaccine programme list, including Angola, Argentina, Cambodia, Costa Rica, Honduras, Nepal, Panama, Mongolia, Peru and Uruguay.
All under 18s from these countries can arrive without quarantining
For adults, it will depend on whether they are fully vaccinated with a UK-approved vaccine.
For UK travel purposes, an adult passenger is considered ‘fully vaccinated’ if:
- They have had a complete course of the Pfizer BioNTech, Oxford/AstraZeneca, Moderna or Janssen vaccines, or a combination of these, at least 15 days before arrival AND
- They received their vaccine in a country on the list of approved vaccination programmes.
- All passengers under 18 years old from these countries follow the same rules as fully vaccinated adults, so they do not need to quarantine.
All EU countries are already on the approved country list, and Brazil, Chile, Oman, Saudi Arabia, Thailand, Turkey, UAE, Ukraine, Vietnam and more.
Passengers who are exempt from quarantine also have reduced Covid test requirements. Before travel, they just need to book a Covid test for day two after arrival, and they need to complete the UK passenger locator form. In England (and in Wales from 31 October) the test can now be a cheaper, easier, lateral flow test.