Germany: Digital registration on entry – Current Covid-19 regulations and punishments
Digital registration on entry to Germany: Here you can find out to what you should pay attention, which regulations apply and what persons entering the country from a risk area need to know:
Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, restrictions for entry into Germany from many countries apply. Persons entering must complete a digital entry registration. Depending on the place departure, they also have to provide a negative test result or proof of immunity, and comply with quarantine regulations. To enter Germany all travelers need to observe the obligation to furnish proof: Persons from the age of 12 must be in possession of proof of vaccination or recovery from COVID-19 or a test certificate (antigen test: taken max. 48 hours, PCR test: taken max. 72 hours before entry) when crossing the border.
Any person who spent time in an area classified as an area of variants of concern, within the 10 days prior to entering Germany, must be in possession of a test certificate (antigen test: taken max. 24 hour, PCR test: taken max. 72 hours before entry). The certificate must be submitted for inspection by the carrier, or upon entry when requested by the Federal Police or the competent authority.
Germany: Who is considered fully vaccinated?
Travelers who received all the required doses of a COVID-19 vaccine cited on the website of the Paul Ehrlich Institute are considered fully vaccinated (Comirnaty is known in the U.S. as Pfizer). It must be at least 14 days since the last vaccine dose was administered. On entry, travelers must have proof of vaccination in written (e.g. CDC card) or digital form (a cellphone photo is not sufficient). Vaccinated travelers must additionally show no relevant symptoms. Travelers who can prove they were previously infected with COVID through a positive PCR test, taken at least 28 days but no more than six months prior, and who show no relevant symptoms are considered to be fully recovered.
Digital registration on entry to Germany: Rules and punishment
Violations of the following rules may be punished as an administrative offence with a fine of up to 25,000 euros:
- Even before entering Germany, you must carry out a digital registration on entry if, at any time in the ten days prior to your entry, you spent time in an area classified as a high-risk area or an area of variants of concern at the time of your entry. Here you can find a list of high-risk areas and areas of variants of concern
- Digital registration on entry is free of charge.
- Enter information on the places you stayed over the previous ten days via the www.einreiseanmeldung.de website. You can change the language to English at the top of the website.
- After filling in all of the necessary information, you will receive a PDF file as confirmation. Before transporting you to your destination, your carrier will check whether you are in possession of a confirmation. Otherwise, the carrier will not be allowed to take you.
- If you have spent time in high-risk areas or areas of variants of concern within the last ten days prior to your date of entry, you have to proceed directly to your own home, or other suitable accommodation, immediately upon arrival and remain exclusively at this location after your entry into the country (quarantine). You may not receive any visitors.
- The quarantine period following a stay in a high-risk area is 10 days. If you submit proof of vaccination or recovery to the registry form on entry (https://www.einreiseanmeldung.de) your quarantine will end prematurely at the time of submission. You can upload the documents at the end of the registration form.
- The same applies to the submission of a test result; however the test may not have been conducted sooner than five days after entry, meaning that, in this case, the quarantine lasts for at least 5 days. For children under the age of 12, the quarantine automatically ends at the end of the fifth day after entry.
- Following a stay in an area of variants of concern, the quarantine lasts 14 days. In this case there is no possibility of lifting the quarantine early (neither for vaccinated nor for recovered persons).
- Should you, for want of the necessary technical equipment or because of a technical malfunction, be unable to carry out a digital registration on entry, you will be required alternatively to fill out a substitute registration on paper. Please refer to the substitute registration for information on where to submit it (e.g. on request, to the carrier or to the Federal Police). Where no request to present the substitute registration is made, you are required to either complete the Digital Registration on Entry at a later point or submit the completed substitute registration by post to the following address: Deutsche Post E-POST Solutions GmbH, 69990 Mannheim
- Find out more about The Ordinance on Coronavirus Entry Regulations
In Germany the USA are classified as a COVID high-risk area
From Sunday, August 15th, the USA are classified as a so-called COVID high-risk area. This classification as a risk area is the result of a joint analysis and decision-making process by the Federal Ministry of Health, the Federal Foreign Office and the Federal Ministry of the Interior. Travelers who have spent time in the U.S. within 10 days prior to entering the Federal Republic of Germany will have to be a) fully vaccinated or b) need to demonstrate an important reason for entering Germany. More information on this new regulation can be found here. Please check your airline´s applicable condition of carriage. The decision whether to allow entry at the border is at the discretion of the border officials. (kp)