COVID-19 Travel Conditions for Non-Fully Vaccinated UK Nationals Travelling to Spain and Back to the UK during The Pandemic

Page Content

Latest update: 20 July 2022

Until 20 May 2022, to enter Spain, UK nationals either needed to have a valid certificate of vaccination or a valid certificate of recovery. If you did not have any of these certificates, you could only enter Spain with a negative COVID-19 test certificate if you met very specific conditions, which were quite restrictice and did not include tourism. However since 21 May 2022, UK nationals entering Spain with a COVID-19 test certificate no longer need to meet specific conditions to enter Spain. This means that you no longer need to be fully vaccinated or have a COVID certificate of recovery to come to Spain for a holiday.

This page covers the following:

1. COVID-19 entry requirements for UK nationals who do not have a valid COVID certificate of vaccination or of recovery

• The special circumstances under which non fully vaccinated UK nationals who do not have recovered from COVID in the last 6 months can travel to Spain with a negative COVID-19 test certificate.
• The negative COVID-19 test certificate is needed to enter Spain for non fully vaccinated UK nationals who do not have a recovery certificate but meet the specific circumstances to enter Spain.
• The Spanish Health control form to fill out to get a QR code when travelling from the UK to Spain.
• Conditions under which a quarantine might be needed for UK nationals travelling to Spain.

2. COVID-19 travel requirements to fly back from Spain to the UK for non fully vaccinated UK nationals

• Entry requirements in the UK for UK nationals who do not qualify as fully vaccinated
• Passenger locator form to fill out when travelling from Spain to the UK
• Conditions under which a quarantine may be needed for UK travellers flying from Spain to the UK

If you are a fully vaccinated UK national travelling to Spain for holidays, read our following page:

COVID-19 travel requirements for UK nationals on holiday to Spain during the pandemic

Definitions

To avoid any confusion, we will define here some terms.

Fully vaccinated: You are considered fully vaccinated to enter Spain from the UK 14 days after having received the second dose of a 2-dose vaccine or 14 days after having received the unique dose of a single-dose vaccine.

E.g. you are considered fully vaccinated 14 days after having received the second jab with AstraZeneca, Pfizer BioNTech Comirnaty, Moderna, Novavax vaccines, and 14 days after having received the unique dose of Janssen.

Once you are fully vaccinated, you have up to 270 days, which is approximately 9 months in which you can travel.

If you are not fully vaccinated or if your vaccination certificate is no longer valid, meaning that more than 270 days have passed since your last vaccine dose, you will only be able to enter Spain under specific circumstances, which are listed below.

Valid certificate of recovery: Your recovery certificate is considered valid if it shows you had a positive PCR or antigen test in the past 180 days (which equals 6 months) and if you have the positive COVID test certificate from which the recovery certificate is derived.

Note that the antigen tests accepted with a recovery certificate are the rapid antigen tests approved by the European Commission.

After 180 days of your positive PCR or antigen test, your recovery status is no longer considered valid. Therefore you won´t be able to enter Spain with your NHS COVID pass showing you recovered from COVID if you recovered from COVID more than 6 months ago.

1. COVID-19 entry requirements to Spain for UK nationals who are non fully vaccinated or who do not have a valid certificate of recovery

Since 21 May 2022, if you are a non-fully vaccinated UK national and do not have a valid certificate of recovery, you can enter Spain with a negative COVID-19 test without having to meet any additional special circumstances. You need a negative certificate of a COVID test. COVID tests accepted to enter Spain are:

• A nucleic acid amplification test, also referred to as a NAAT test. NAAT tests include: RT-PCR, RT-LAMP, TMA, HAD, NEAR, CRISPR, and SDA tests. For your certificate to be valid, you must take the test within the previous 72 hours of arrival in Spain.
  


• A rapid antigen test, also referred to as a RAT, was approved by the European Commission. For your certificate to be valid, you must take the test within the previous 72 hours before departure to Spain. You can check the list of rapid antigen tests approved by the EU on the COVID-19 diagnostic tests page of the European Commission. For your rapid antigen test certificate to be valid, you must take the test within the previous 24 hours before departure to Spain.

Health control form to fill out to get a QR code when travelling from the UK to Spain

When entering Spain with a negative COVID test certificate, within 48 hours before your flight to Spain, you must fill out a health control form on the Spain Travel Health website to get a QR code. You will need to show that QR code at the control points at the airport upon arrival to Spain.

Health control lines to show QR code at Barcelona Airport

Note that the Spanish health control form is also referred to as the FCS form. FCS stands for “Formulario de Control Sanitario” in Spanish, which means health control form. The health control form and the FCS form are exactly the same form.

Quarantine for UK travellers flying from the UK to Spain

Since 27 December 2021, no one needs to quarantine upon arrival to Spain. You will not have to quarantine upon arrival to Spain from the UK. However you should first ensure that you meet the requirements to enter Spain otherwise you will not be allowed entry even if there is no quarantine requirements.

2. COVID-19 travel requirements to fly from Spain to the UK for non fully vaccinated UK nationals

There are no more COVID entry requirements in the UK. You can enter the UK whether you are vaccinated or not.

Non fully vaccinated UK nationals no longer need to:

• take a COVID-19 test in Spain within 2 days before travelling to the UK
• book and pay for a COVID test in the UK before travelling
• complete your passenger locator form before you travel to the UK

There are no quarantine upon arrival to the UK either.

You can double check this information on the UK government page on Travel to England from another country during COVID-19.