Hi all,
Has any of you recently travelled to the US with a covid recovery certificate? I was supposed to travel today, but my test was positive yesterday. So, I had to push the trip a couple of weeks while I recover. I got a positive PCR lab test result, and I will ask for the BAG certificate of recovery. Is this enough to travel?
I asked the US embassy in Bern and the auto-replied they do not provide further information regarding covid entry rules. I would call the airline, but I can only find generic numbers for American and Iberia, which connect me to a callcenter that probably knows nothing about particular Swiss recovery certificates.
I am in doubt because the embassy website it states that one needs a single letter documenting the recovery, which seems to me like the BAG document:
while on the CDC website it states that one needs two documents, a test result and a letter from a doctor or a public health official.
If any of you have already done this or have a better understanding , that would be of great help. Thanks in advance!
Hi, thanks for the reply. We have the full vaccination as well. What I want to avoid is doing a new test before travelling, because in the CDC page recommends against it because it can be positive for quite some time, even without symptoms.
For me it was unexpected. I got covid already in January, 15 days after the booster, and now again, less than 3 months after the last infection... And I did some tests between the infections and they were negative. So this seems like a new infection. I hope I'll not be catching this every 3 months...
Sorry to hear about your new infection.
The language is confusing but I think it's like this: The recovery letter goes hand-in-hand with the positive test. The letter is addressing why you have a positive test instead of a negative one.
You only need to show a rapid antigen test to enter the USA. It's possible that an antigen test would show negative before you travel, because it only picks up when you're very contagious.
In your shoes, I'd try to get a rapid antigen test before travel because it will be more commonly seen. You're less likely to have trouble if you run into some underpaid, overworked soul who doesn't know what to do with the other two docs.
I'm in a similar position as the original poster. I've done some digging and discovered that a recovery certificate is insufficient to enter the US. According to the link below, one must meet 6 requirements regardless of citizenship (see page 5 of the link):
https://www.cdc.gov/quarantine/pdf/A...ing_UPDATE.pdf
This was issued in February 2022, and I will assume that since Omicron is spreading quickly in the US that the CDC will not ease these requirements in the near future.
In terms of finding a doctor or public health official who will write the letter, I have not explored this much on the Swiss side, but I did find two companies in the US who appear to issue the letter if you can provide a recent, positive PCR test result:
https://mdanywhere.com/documentation-of-recovery/
https://eviviacare.com/document-of-recovery/
I will reach out to these companies to see if they will do this for someone overseas. The cost seems to be reasonable at USD 70.
To the point made above that it's probably easier to show up with a negative test vs a recovery certificate and letter, I beg to differ. I flew to the States with special permission before borders opened last November. The staff was too overwhelmed to check everyone's paperwork in detail. I think you need to have your papers in order in case you are checked, but once they see you have everything, they are happy to wave you through.
I'd rather pay for a letter showing I am recovered than gamble on testing negative if I've had a recent infection. But that's just me.