One of severe day spoilers is reaching at your anticipated travel and then finding out you don’t have everything you need to proceed and kickstart your check in.
Today, travelers have to carry a number of documents, from physical passports to vaccine cards to negative COVID-19 test results. But even with top niche planning, you could arrive with the wrong information or lose it during transit or even have it misplaced at the check in point and be turned away. And this could be the biggest turnoff you should never encounter. But what do you do in such a scenario?
After you’ve been turned away
Unfortunately, if your travel documents, such as your CDC COVID-19 vaccine card, aren’t accepted, it’ll be hard to prove validity unless you’re using a vaccine passport.
Part of the reason why it’ll be difficult to prove is that there’s no publicly, or easily accessible, database for who has been vaccinated and who hasn’t. Vaccine passports are supposed to be able to verify these travel documents but we’re nowhere near a universal system, so some border agents may get confused by these documents.
However, some country’s border agents may be more familiar with the yellow World Health Organization vaccine booklet. If you happened to have brought your WHO booklet to your vaccination appointment(s) and had the information from your CDC COVID-19 vaccination card added to it, you could show that document as well.
If all else fails, you could give your national medical database a call at its provided hotline and seek for proper proof from their data base in case they keep a digital one. Or even, cal the travel clinic where you received the vaccine from and request digital proof.
Do not cause a commotion
This could be the worst you could do in case your travel documents are not in line with the required. A commotion could be a straight security concern and you could be arrested by the airport security. Being calm is key and thinking of the possible could help.
Prior travel benchmarking list
Prior to setting off from home, creating a checklist to benchmark on is an easy way to ensure that you have the correct documents and are all set for travel. Incase you run a busy schedule and are more prone to forgetfullness, you may want to create a physical list instead of a mental one. This could be on any of your gadgets electronically or even in a diary.
If you’re flying abroad, you’ll need a negative COVID-19 test (or proof of recovery) to re-enter the country. I suggest making that appointment before leaving home. You may also need a negative test to enter a destination and some locations require specific tests.
Digitize your documents
After compiling and getting in hand with all your documents, you will have to make copies of them that is both physical copies, scans and also take photos and store them in your phone’s cloud so they can be accessible in bothe tangible and softcopy versions.
Destinations may soon require proof of a COVID-19 vaccination, and streamlining that process is something the travel industry has been working on in the form of digital vaccine passports.
Soon, Digital health passports, such as IATA Travel Pass and Clear Health Pass, will host verified test and vaccine information. Several health passport providers have previously told TPG that getting your vaccine status or negative test results onto their apps will be easy.
Take heart
In case your bounced because you don’t have the correct documents, it’s essential to take heart and not to panic. The authorities are diligently doing the best of their daily schedule and you have been caught up on the wrong side of the coin.
But then, don’t panic think it through. Think of what would be the best lternative that could get you back in line. If you’re prone to misplacing things, you may want to have a backup to prove your health status.
You could probably contact your country embassy in the area your in and maybe with your explanation, some help could be arrived at. It’s possible that you may arrive at a destination with the wrong documentation or no documentation at all. But before this happens, make sure you have the correct paperwork and consider keeping multiple copies on your phone or your person.
Being honest with whoever is checking your documents could go a long way, but make sure you don’t try to forge documents or try to bribe your way into entry. They’re just doing their jobs and you could be breaking the law. In this case, this could probably go further than you expected.
About Guide2Uganda
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