International Travel update

Date published: 18 September 2021

Traffic light system –

From Monday 4 October the traffic light system will be removed with the merger of the green and amber lists, leaving a single red list. Travel requirements for arrivals from the rest of the world will be determined by a travellers vaccination status rather than the country they are travelling from. Going forward countries/regions/territories will be classified as red or non-red.

Proposed changes to pre-departure and post-arrival testing for travellers are under consideration and will be discussed by Executive Ministers next week.

Changes to red list -

There was agreement on changes to the red list. From 4am on Wednesday 22 September the following countries/regions/territories will be removed from the red list.

· Turkey

· Egypt

· Kenya

· Oman

· The Maldives

· Pakistan

· Bangladesh

· Sri Lanka

Fully vaccinated policy -

Fully vaccinated UK, EU and USA residents are currently recognised as fully vaccinated for the purposes of enabling travellers to not have to self-isolate or undertake a day 8 PCR test on arrival in the UK.

From 4 October fully vaccinated travellers from the following countries/regions/territories will be included in this policy:

Canada, Australia, Israel, New Zealand, Singapore, Antigua & Barbuda, Barbados, Brunei, Taiwan, and Dominica, Japan, South Korea, Qatar, Kuwait, Malaysia, Saudi Arabia and Bahrain.

It was also agreed to further expand the definition of ‘fully vaccinated’ to include individuals with mixed vaccine doses.

The latest advice and rules on travel are available on NI Direct.