Traveling Internationally During a Pandemic
Before you Leave the US
- Get a Google Voice Number - If you can get to your state's vaccination record easily wonderful, but I had issues because I must have been registered with my cell phone and my cell phone number cannot be used o
utside of the US because I have AT&T Prepaid and that method doesn't give me access to purchase their Passport plan for traveling internationally. So when I go abroad I must purchase an international SIM card. For this reason, a google voice number is the most useful. Because this allows me to make and receive calls from abroad, and also get emails of my missed calls and texts. I recommend at least forwarding your calls to the google voice so at least you may receive voice mails... but not text messages.
- Activate Call forwarding BEFORE you leave the US
Dial **21* plus the 10-digit number you want your calls forwarded to and press # For example: **21*1234567890# forwards your calls to the phone number 123-456-7890
- Change all your 2 factor authentications to your google voice number or email address INSTEAD of your cellphone number. This is extremely important. Otherwise you will not be able to access your accounts while abroad.
Getting your Vaccine Record from Abroad
1) Get Vaccinated
2) Take a photo and print out an additional vaccination record, 1 to go inside passport, 1 for wallet
3) You may need to VPN from a US server in order to access your state's vaccination website. If so, the easiest and free way is to download a program to your phone and access it that way. I was unable to easily locate a free VPN for my computer. I used USA VPN
4) Since I live in california, their vaccination website is https://myvaccinerecord.cdph.ca.gov/, I could only access this website through VPN from my mobile.
5) For me, I am still having trouble getting my digital record from California, my latest attempt is through https://chat.myturn.ca.gov/, so I hope that will work
The reason I am going through this trouble is that some countries are making it easier to travel to if you are vaccinated. Europe has created a Green Pass, and I am not sure yet, but it may be possible or easier to get if there is a digital record that they can locate as proof of your vaccination. If you know the answer to this, please write in the comments!
Advice for people who plan on traveling internationally and need a PCR test: Go as soon within the allowance window that you can to get the test. To go to Italy one set of text said you need to get the test within 48 hours of departure But somewhere else it said within 72 hours of arrival to Italy. The issue was I was thinking 48 hours of departure... and I had an evening flight, which was after testing times at the pharmacy, so I did my test around 18 hours before my flight. You can make a reservation with CVS. The other issue is that CVS can take 1-2 days.. or 1-4 days depending on their location.... So, actually it can actually be not enough time.
I needed to get a test at the Airport for $179 because my test did not come back in time. It was also stressful to keep checking my phone with not knowing if I would be getting the results or not. I ended up getting the results 45 minutes before the flight departure, which was useless. The good thing is it only took a total of around 20 minutes to get the anti-gen test and result this way, so I was able to make my flight.
Another thing to note is that Italy only accepts a PCR or an anti-gen test. Both are nasal swab tests. Anti-gen test is a rapid test, but it is NOT the same as the rapid molecular test. If you can, best case is to find a location that does the Anti-gen test, and where insurance covers it, because the airport locations do not accept insurance. The person next to me... which I ended up helping out to NOT miss his flight had the wrong test... and ALSO had to do the $179 test at the airport in JFK.
You need to make sure the paperwork your receive is from the lab and specifies the kind of test and the date and time of the test, with all of your correct information. The rules are always changing for each place, so make sure you are current on your destination's requirements.
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