Recent travel to the USA?

Ben's response is so so helpful.

As I just flew in last week from the USA, here's what I did:

Left in April (LHR > BOS). I was going for surgery and had a letter from my surgeon. I wasn't asked for this, but I was asked why I was travelling and said medical.
At Heathrow they inspected our marriage certificate and my UK spouse's passport and held us up as they said he did not have an approved ESTA. But he did - and had the email to show it. This held us up over an hour with an American inspection person, right at the Virgin counter. At least 2 other British and American couples were held up too.
They checked covid test results at check in and before boarding the plane.

I brought along a box of lateral flow tests that we got from Boots to take once we got to our rental in MA; that was for my own reassurance.

When flying back, we got rapid lateral flow tests done 2 days before flying - in Boston this cost $180 per person at a walk in clinic. We again had to present these at check in, along with proof we'd ordered the covid tests and had a place to quarantine back in London.

I have to warn you, Heathrow was an absolute nightmare when I flew in. Terminal 2 - they have closed all the electronic gates at the border, and had only 4 border agents working, and several international flights had landed. Mask wearing was not enforced, the agents didn't wear masks, there was no social distancing. I waited in line for about 2 hours before we made it over the border. Both of us have British passports and we were not asked about passenger locator, tests, or anything else - but other people definitely were asked for these things.

On day 9 of quarantine now! I have to say, I don't think these quarantine rules were designed by people that have very small london flats, but it hasn't been too bad, overall.

Things can change so quickly, just bookmark the .gov site which will hopefully always have the layest, most accurate information.

https://www.gov.uk/foreign-travel-advice

I left the UK for the USA on 3 June and returned back to the UK on 21 June.

To enter the US, I used this test provider: https://midlandhealth.co.uk/ [nofollow] . Paid for an Antigen test. Upon receipt of negative test via email, I asked that the letter specify it was a **viral** antigen test (as per CDC wording in guidelines). The request was granted. No problems entering the US.

Harder for me was figuring out which test to take to come back to the UK. I understand some airlines offer to let you take kits with you. I hadn't realised this when leaving. Not sure how or if these can be processed in the USA.

In the USA I was not in a major urban area and there were no travel test providers in person. I couldn't find any test provider that guaranteed they could meet the UK entry requirements. Read pages and pages of FDA documents, trying to get them to match the UK requirements. No luck.

Finally decided to chance it on Vault health, which is an FDA approved test provider - they use the first PCR spit test that was approved by the FDA rather than the second one, and the first one is seemingly more sensitive. I called Vault and they could not guarantee it would meet UK requirements.  My test was free in the mail via Minnesota (thank you Minnesota).

https://learn.vaulthealth.com/travel-int/ [nofollow]

The Vault website suggested I needed to order the test a week in advance via mail but it arrived in a few days. They do not support results in time for flights on Tuesday or Wednesday - see link above. My flight was on Sunday thank goodness. I took the test on Thursday and dropped it off at UPS before air pickup as they said. But they didn't get my test until Saturday morning, and I got an email saying the results would be 24-48 hours. In a panic I called Vault health, explained my situation, and my results were ready that day. They also apologised for the stress caused by the delay. I am very suspicious of the US post system right now as I also had a Walgreens order delayed by weeks!

No problem using the Vault letter at the UK border. I would use them again.

I had booked my Day 2 and Day 8 tests via an approved UK supplier, Randox, and these were waiting for me at home when I arrived. NHS Test and Trace called me today (Day 1) to check I had received my Day 2 test and they said they will be calling me every day. I filled out my passenger locator form online. I read the reviews on some test providers and people were saying they hadn't received their tests by the time they got back to the UK. I did order mine about a week in advance though.

Also, it was pretty much roulette at the Heathrow e-gates by the way. I would say around 1/3 got through no problem like me. But around 2/3 were told to 'see agent' and had to wait in a very, very long line and weren't let through automatically.

Good luck!!!!

Harder for me was figuring out which test to take to come back to the UK. I understand some airlines offer to let you take kits with you. I hadn't realised this when leaving. Not sure how or if these can be processed in the USA.

Morning I took my kit with me £39 test and it worked great.   MY wife is still in USA and had same issue as you looking for somewhere to do it although I think I read CVS are doing them but not sure if there good enough for UK entry, so 2 weeks ago I purchased a kit back here in UK for my wife against at £39 and have posted it to her I marked it as makeup at the post office fortunatley it arrived!!   maybe the rules will change soon for us double jabbers to make it slightly more easy!....

Morning I took my kit with me £39 test and it worked great.   MY wife is still in USA and had same issue as you looking for somewhere to do it although I think I read CVS are doing them but not sure if there good enough for UK entry, so 2 weeks ago I purchased a kit back here in UK for my wife against at £39 and have posted it to her I marked it as makeup at the post office fortunatley it arrived!!   maybe the rules will change soon for us double jabbers to make it slightly more easy!....

I hope you're right about the double jabbing! Thank you so much for providing the information about taking the kit with you - I think that definitely sounds like the best way to go. Out of curiousity, which kit did you take? Did you have to send it off to the lab? I'm also not sure if CVS can do it - not sure which test they use or if the test result confirmation meets all of the requirements....

Hi  I went with these
https://qured.com/health-travel-pass/#
Got the Antigen, it was super easy.  You book a video chat for <72 hours.   Stick the stuff up your nose and in your throat and put it in a small tube of liquid they give you in the pack.  Then after 20 minutes you have to take a photo and email it to them as it is basically like a pregnancy kit so shows if passed or not, they then issue a certificate for you.

I was sceptical becuase there are so many bad reviews for the company but for me it worked perfectly.

Hi  I went with these
https://qured.com/health-travel-pass/# [nofollow]
Got the Antigen, it was super easy.  You book a video chat for <72 hours.   Stick the stuff up your nose and in your throat and put it in a small tube of liquid they give you in the pack.  Then after 20 minutes you have to take a photo and email it to them as it is basically like a pregnancy kit so shows if passed or not, they then issue a certificate for you.

I was sceptical becuase there are so many bad reviews for the company but for me it worked perfectly.

That's awesome you could do the test in your own home and it worked at the border! Definitely better than risking it in the mail. Hope your wife makes it back ok - lucky it got to her!! If this testing business continues I'll be bringing one with me next time but hopefully it will send soon enough.

So, we're back and we had a great time seeing family and visiting a few liked restaurants etc. We went to Pennsylvania where you do not need a mask if you're fully vaccinated. Felt strange walking around not wearing one but asking my 4 year old to wear one. Role reversal.

We ordered our kits with Randox but please BE WARNED if you're doing Test to Release (Day 5). Our Day 5 was Friday and our kits did not arrive. I was on the phone for over an hour to get to the front of the line and get cut off. Their customer support is dreadful. To cut a long story short I went to Twitter messenger and forced them to do whatever it took for me and my wife to take a test that day. In the end, my parents had to go to Manchester Airport to pick a test up for me to take. But, if you go on Twitter or Trustpilot, some people who weren't as forceful as me are STILL waiting for their Day 5 tests to arrive, it's Day 8 for them now. You also have to wait a day for the results, keep in mind.

Just a point for people to know. If your Day 2 does not arrive in time (Day 1 or before) then the government will send you one free of charge. That's what test and trace told us.

Has anyone travelled recently using the President Proclamation with expired passports?

We did last month, and it was a bit of a pain to convince the British Airways assistants that we could indeed fly back with expired passports. For a start, we could not do the check in for our flight ahead of the departure and once att he airport in Aberdeen they would not give us the boarding pass for the London-San Francisco leg. Once in London, they gave us a bit of a hard time before our boarding passes were printed. A few phone calls (the guy did not believe us, despite me carrying all the relevant docs and declarations printed from the Consulate). Anyway, eventually they gave in, but it took some 20-30 min, so make sure you have extra time if you are connecting.
But we had no issues at all once we had the boarding passes, both at gate and once arrived in the USA.
Good luck, and be patient!

Thanks for that info. How did you fly back, did you renew passport in US or fly back with UK passport?

Hi, planning on booking a flight from London to  New York on 27th July for myself (UK) husband (US) and our two daughters (dual). We are hoping to get emergency appointments for daughters to renew their expired US passports on 26th 😬😬 In London. With the weekend being so close to the dates will hope to fly and needing to do in within 3 days I am getting a little confused about when to do our tests. We will travel down to London on 25th so won’t be at home if they mail things, or can it be done electronically once you get the kit?

Has anyone had an emergency appointment to renew children’s passports recently?

Should I, as a UK citizen still get an ESTA?

The US passport renew service at the post office said we should fly the children in their UK passports, is thus possible, would they need ESTAs too?

Thanks so much!

For the second part, yes, you still need a valid ESTA.  This *will* be cancelled but don’t worry. They will just need to check you are either the spouse or parent of a USC at the airport to check you in and reactivate the ESTA.  So have all your paperwork with you.

The kids are getting their US passports, so there is no issue there.  For future, to apply for an ESTA you have to click a statement saying you are not American, so they don’t actually qualify for one.  But again, not an issue as you’ll get the passports on the day at the embassy. 

No clue about the tests. I’m avoiding all of that! 

Thanks, what paperwork should I prepare?

Any ideas if it is possible to renew their passports in the US? Their phones and online booking system don’t seem to be working, if this is an option will be better than hoping to get embassy appointment in London the day before we travel, would have to get hotel, extra day off work etc.

Thanks!

So could my daughters get an ESTA and fly on their UK passports if we don’t get appt at embassy?