Travelling to US in December

Hiya,

After 3 long years, my husband (UKC) and I (USC) are going back to see my family in Texas.
I have seen from other posts on here that we will need to take a number of documents with us. Can someone please confirm if this is correct...

1. Marriage Certificate
2. Passenger Locator form - do we each need one of these? I'm assuming we both do.
3. Attestation - Not sure about this, does it have to do with the preflight covid test or what? Also, do both of us need one?
4. Covid test certificate x2 - I think a rapid antigen will suffice?

Where can I download and print the passenger locator forms and the attestations? Am I missing anything?

Also, the whole ESTA palaver has me really nervous, someone has suggested to check in at the airport and not online. If this is done at Heathrow, I'm worried we won't have enough time to make our flight to the US. We've got 2hr 20min in Heathrow and I'm praying that's enough time to sort this particular mess out.

If I hadn't seen my family in 3 years, I'd want to forgo every bit of this until things are more or less back to normal, but my parents are not in good health and I really need to see them. So, will have to bite the bullet and just through the very confusing hoops to get there and back.

Many thanks in advance for your advice, it's really appreciated.


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Hi there.

Everything I write below is at it stands today. Things could change between now and December.

1. Marriage certificate is required to show that your husband is exempt from the proclamation (ban). This will be showed obviously at departure

2. You will each need one of these. The form is for arrival back into the UK and is filled in online so you can take care of it over in USA, if you wish. You can also print it off once complete. We did this and for some reason my wife's PLF hadn't uploaded fully so the print out saved a headache at arrivals.

3. Attestation is a form declaring that your covid test result is legit. Each of you need this. They're available at check-in but it's one less stress to worry about if it's pre-filled.

4. Rapid antigen is accepted, yes.

Hmm, 2hr 20min is cutting it fine in my opinion. It all rests on which terminal you're flying into. If you're not travelling into terminal 5 (which I've presumed your outbound is from) I don't think it's enough time. If it's the same terminal I think you'll be fine (just).

The delay is immigration. When I flew it was one Immigration Officer dealing with everyone. He had three phones all going off for people at the gate, USA etc on top of dealing with people in-line hoping to clear. Then check-in need to call US border control once you're through, hence the instruction to NOT check-in online. If you check-in online, you will miss your flight with the mess I imagine it will cause under a tight timeframe.

Have you considered a layover/stopover? When we flew from Manchester we stayed overnight. It was actually a lot more relaxing. At Manchester he sent our luggage straight through to Philadelphia, we flew out at 14:45ish so it was an easy morning and we relaxed and had a meal before waking up ready for our 10:20am flight.

Thanks for the advice, Ben. Not sure if we can change to an earlier flight from MAN, will have to discuss with my husband. Hopefully it'll be relaxed a bit by the time we go over, but I'm not counting on it for sure.

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All change with the US allowing for fully vaccinated folks to come in from the UK a lot easier now!

All change with the US allowing for fully vaccinated folks to come in from the UK a lot easier now!

Yes, just saw this news, hopefully that will make things a bit easier as time goes by. Will be watching this section for other's trips over the pond. It sure would be a lot easier to be able to check in online as normal.

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