Forgot your password?
Feedback is welcome
ENTRY requirements to Spain from outside the EU and the Schengen zone have been relaxed – travellers will no longer have to show a 'Covid certificate' upon arrival.
A European Union regulation brought in last year replaced the 'traffic light' system, where some countries or regions were off limits altogether or required quarantine, with an obligation to show either proof of having been vaccinated, of having had Covid within the previous six months, or a negative PCR or antigen test taken not more than 72 and 24 hours before entering a country respectively.
The aim was to gradually remove barriers to free movement throughout member States and the wider EEA, although countries were given authority to retain restrictions on entry where public health concerns justified doing so.
Where this was the case, national governments were instructed to 'not go beyond what is strictly necessary to safeguard public health', and to lift the restrictions as soon as the country's epidemiological situation permitted – with the focus, in this respect, mainly on hospital admission figures rather than the percentage of 'positives' among the general population.
From June 1 this year, Spain dropped 'Covid certificate' requirements for the Schengen zone and the EU, including Norway, Iceland and Switzerland.
This remained in place for non-EU countries – which, from early 2021, included the UK – and arrivals from nations still requiring a 'Covid passport' were also warned they may be subject to random health checks.
These might just involve a traveller's temperature being taken in passing, but they may also have been expected to undergo a medical examination, visual assessment, interview, or to take a PCR or antigen test.
A decree that came into effect on April 1 this year had established these requirements for all international arrivals, but two months later, only continued to apply for countries not in either the EU or the Schengen.
Land borders were exempt, except those with Morocco in the case of the city-provinces of Ceuta and Melilla, but travellers by air and sea were affected.
Starting from Friday, October 21, though, no health checks or 'Covid certificates' will be needed for anyone entering the country from outside the EEA, according to a notice published in the State Official Bulletin (BOE).
Order No. SND/984/2022 of October 18 is the legislation that allows entry to Spain without any Covid-related restrictions – but it includes a proviso that these limitations may be enforced again in the future.
A reactivation of international health-related control measures or a worsening of the Covid pandemic would mean these requirements were instantly put back in place, the BOE notice states.
Separately, but also linked to non-EU arrivals, anyone from the UK who lives in Spain must carry their residence document with them and proactively show it to border officials at the same time as their passports.
Non-resident British nationals travelling to Spain – even if visiting family who lives there, or who plan to stay in a holiday home they own – will have their passports stamped upon arrival and departure.
They are not permitted to spend more than 90 days in any 180-day period within the Schengen zone, which Spain forms part of.
Just two months after Valencia was voted by Forbes Magazine the best city in the world to live in (https://www.thinkspain.com/news-spain/33510/valencia-is-the-world-s-most-liveable-city-here-s-why), two other Spanish...
MADRID'S Adolfo Suárez-Barajas airport has been named number one in Europe in terms of services, efficiency, complaints handling, and quality of its shops and restaurants, and Bilbao airport has come second.
“THE best thing that can be said about a city is that it's the best in the world to live in – and Valencia, from today, is just that,” says Sandra Gómez, deputy mayor of Spain's third-largest metropolis.
DINING with the stars is perfectly possible almost anywhere in Spain – if you have the budget to do so.