PCR test for re-entry to Geneva

Daily Life, Swiss News and General Topics
1
We are flying from the UK to Geneva on 19 December and then transiting to France via private transfer. Can anyone help clarify the situation regarding PCR tests for re-entry to Switzerland on the 26th to fly home from Geneva to the UK? All fully vaccinated.

The UK government website says "Travellers must be able to produce a negative PCR test (not older than 72 hours) on boarding a plane to Switzerland", but it's not clear what is required for re-entry to Switzerland in order to fly out of the country.

Can anyone help?

2
Ask your airline. They are the ones to decide to board you or not,

3
The airport is on the border, you can exit on the French side, or at least you always could in the past. Do you have to enter CH? Also flying within shengen was always easy, not sure about non-shengen to shengen if it's as easy.

4
Yes, you do need a PCR test to enter via Geneva at the moment, even if transiting directly to France. See here - out in your details and it will tell you what to need to enter or transit Switzerland for your circumstances. Currently there is no exit directly to France from GVA due to construction work.

https://travelcheck.admin.ch/check

5
Thanks for your replies. To be clear, I know we need a PCR to enter Geneva when travelling from the UK and transiting directly to France. My question is about re-entry to Geneva AFTER our holiday, coming from France into the UK. The Swiss gov website isn't clear as it's geared towards people flying into Geneva not out of it.

6
From here , my understanding is that if you come from a neighbouring region you are exempt from the test requirement

"The following individuals are exempt from the obligation to be tested:

...

People traveling into Switzerland from areas bordering the country with which there are close economic, social or cultural ties. The following countries, areas and regions are considered “border areas”:

- Regions in Germany: State of Baden-Württemberg, State of Bavaria

- Regions in France: Region of Grand-Est, Region of Burgundy / Franche Comté, Region of Auvergne / Rhône-Alpes

- Regions in Italy: Region of Piedmont, Region of Aosta Valley, Region of Lombardy, Region of Trentino / South Tyrol

- Regions in Austria: State of Tyrol, State of Vorarlberg

- Regions in Liechtenstein: Entire Principality"

7
That's correct. If you enter Switzerland by land from one of the neighbouring regions you must not test and must also not submit an online entry form. The measures target only:

- air travel arriving in Switzerland

- long distance trains from outside the border areas, long distance buses

The reason behind the measures: The Swiss government had its hands tied within Switzerland and felt under pressure to 'do something'.

8
I‘m so sorry, I completely misread your post. Where in France? As said above, if Rhone-Alps, then it‘s a border region and you don‘t need any test at all to get into Switzerland.

I suspect the PCR requirement for flying into GVA is to avoid making entry to GVA even more complicated than it is - the airlines are responsible for ensuring that everyone has the correct test to enter Switzerland, and that‘s very complicated to enforce and risks people lying about their destination if there are different rules for flying to GVA and staying in CH vs flying to GVA and transiting by road to France. Some friends of mine flew into GVA from UK last Saturday (4th) just after the rule change to require PCR for entry to CH and at that point they were saying antigen only ok if transiting to France - and there was chaos at the airports. They got through on antigen only but subsequently the rules were tightened also for transit. They left again yesterday via GVA and were only asked for their antigen tests at the airport as that is what they needed to get back to UK. No one asked where they‘d come from either.

9
When you exit GVA airport through the French sector, you still have to go through Swiss immigration and customs. Access to the French sector is from landside in the Swiss sector.

10
I doubt the airline will let you board the plane without a negative PCR Test

11
Double check with the airline and their conditions for boarding.

12
From UK to GVA, no, they won‘t, as you need a PCR to enter Switzerland.

From GVA to UK, yes they will (as long as you have antigen), as you only need an antigen to enter the UK. At least my friends had no issues doing exactly this yesterday.

13
Is this new? On flights from France you could always avoid Swiss immigration/customs and French immigration/customs as it was considered a domestic journey.

14
According to the airport website the French sector at GVA is closed for renovation.

There is a certain likelihood that the PCR requirement may be abolished again pretty soon, as the 'O' variant has already been spreading in Switzerland unnoticed for quite some time. Perhaps this will be announced on Monday.

15
You need the PCR test to enter Switzerland by land from France if you are not a Swiss resident or a resident of the border exemption areas, even if you are only transiting through Geneva airport. The travelcheck tool tells you this and my colleague called the BAG Corona Info line to confirm that this is the case. The info on the BAG website is really confusing!

16
Hope the requirement for a test will be dropped,when you got you 3 rd vaccination.

In my opinion , a test proofs not much, it depends on the person who is doing the test. Do all the people doing these tests, got a certificate for training ?

The pricerange can be from cheap to a total ripoff.

The most expensiv pcr test, i heard from costs about 404 usd per person in osaka kansai, but zurich can be quite expensive as well (up to 380 sfr , depends on speed of the result). The second problem is , the cheap tests run out pretty fast, so if a requirement changes , your wallet will feel the pain.

And as of now, you need a second PCR test on swiss soil after 4-7 days, which does not come cheap, when the demand is pretty high, when people return from their holidays begin of jan 2022 or bewteen christmas and new year , where not many people are working.

17
Agree.

Antigen is also ok for the day 4-7 test.

18
That information is clearly wrong. The only requirement according to the legal text (Verordnung) is that you must enter Switzerland FROM one of the border areas. Despite what people from the BAG may tell you, the rule of law still applies in Switzerland and the legal text says nothing about what you were supposed / not supposed to do before you entered Switzerland FROM a border area.

19
I have copied this directly from the advice for all travellers :

No test or entry form required for:

Cross-border commuters

Professional drivers

People transiting without stopping

People entering from border regions

From https://www.eda.admin.ch/dam/countri...4122021_EN.pdf

The last point seems to state that anyone entering CH ( from the border region : it does not ask when they entered that border region or are residents) by car through a border region would be exempt of needing to fill the entry form in.

Am I just looking for a loophole here ( to avoid these ridiculous costs and the fact that I can do a self test ( using same device) for less than 2 euro) or is this real ?

I know they say they randomly inspect border crossings : any views ?

20
The BAG has made it very clear in previous statements and 'Massnahmen' that the exemption only applies to people who live in the border areas entering Switzerland.

I think something is lost in translation in the English version -

'Einreisende von Grenzregionen' doesn't mean anybody entering Switzerland via a border region.

eg the BAG spells it out (in German) if you google FAQ Massnahmen 20. September.