European Brits who have visited UK

Dog!

Arrived in UK from France on Monday, a year after our last visit.
We didn’t have to have a test before leaving.
Our daughter booked our day 2 tests, to be done once in UK. She also did all the paperwork for us!
When we got to border controls, on the French side, DH with British passport, had to saw his french residency card. Then on the British side, I, with French passport, was asked why I was coming over and for how long.
P&O were the one checking our vaccination passes and our locator forms, plus the proof of our day 2 tests.
And of course our did’s french passport.
Luckily the port wasn’t busy!!!

It’s all a bit of a nonsense though over here isn’t it? At least in Spain we had to go into a pharmacy with our passports as proof for our pre-flight rapid antigen tests.

Here once home? A joke.

We paid £30 each for Day 2 tests. We did them and sent them off but never heard back. No even ‘negativo’ text as in Spain.

As many of our friends have said what’s to stop people pushing the stick up someone else’s nose over here, who haven’t left the country! No checks at all,

Family from EU visited me, they arranged PCR test arranged from Boots, before flying, the obvious choice, had to have proof of double vaccination, and proof of residency in country they live in. Test done on 2nd day, otherwise normal holiday. No test required by host country before flying home. No problems at all.

Jacky I hope you get to scatter your mother's ashes with your son next year.

Interesting JackyB.
Did they give you a copy of the scan on CD to take away for further investigation? I think you can request it, but then the German gastroenterologist would probably want to start all over again anyway.

Doh! "Covid" not "Civic"

This all sounds so complicated. A friend of mine is just heading over this week to see her family. I shall wait and see what she has to say. I have not plans to go to the UK yet, but hope to next year. I want to go with my DS1 to scatter my mother's ashes. He was in America when she died in July 2019 and couldn't get to the funeral.

I have worked almost my entire working life in Germany, and get my pension here. The short time I worked in the UK as a legal secretary before moving abroad I only earned a scandalously tiny amount and am not eligible to get anything from the DWP.

So funny about the hiatus hernia: I was involved in a very serious accident when I was in the UK 2 years ago and was taken to hospital (I was fine but as they offered I thought it was sensible to check for any hidden injuries) and the scan showed up a hiatus hernia (which I must have had for several years!)

I shall come back to you next week when my friend has been there and back to let you know the answers to the OP questions. She is not retired, however, so can only comment re the Civic testing.

sodapop

Not free Josianne if you have an S1 you are a British tax payer who has worked in UK and paid NI etc.

Yes, that is true sodapop.
What I kind of meant by "free" is that when attending UK A & E as a foreigner you don't have to produce a cheque on the spot to get seen. When accompanying Brits abroad to Urgences I have nearly always had to go into an office and help do the financial paperwork first as well as pay the consultation. The only times they didn't have to pay was where it was babies or children. But this was about 15 years or more ago.

mokryna

? I will fly this time as it will be a short trip but I was thinking of driving over as the roads wouldn’t be so cluttered with HGV.

You wish!
Not planning to use the M25 then? (Apart from the added inconvenience of Insulate Britain protesters stuck to the carriageway. )

halfpint1

So does that mean the photos of queues at Heathrow have been staged? It has certainly put me off visiting for the moment

I don't have recent experience, but a couple of months ago when I returned home, the queue was 4 hours long at Heathrow. I didn't even WANT to fly into Heathrow, I wanted to fly to a NE airport, but no flights available.

It was ridiculous. I also missed the booking for my rental car, because the agency was due to shut while I was in the queue (I'd allowed a 2 hour clearance!).

Not free Josianne if you have an S1 you are a British tax payer who has worked in UK and paid NI etc.

Kali2

If you have S1, you are entitled to any treatment in the UK.

Not that anyone would opt to, due to terrible waiting lists!

So could you present with say indigestion at a UK A & E, have loads of tests done, get diagnosed with say a hiatus hernia, go back to Spain or wherever you live, and wait for a date for surgery at a UK hospital? All for free?

If you have S1, you are entitled to any treatment in the UK.

Not that anyone would opt to, due to terrible waiting lists!

As I understand it UK state pensioners living abroad are entitled to free hospital treatment when visiting the UK, but not pre-planned treatment or treatment that can wait I til they return home. So you could present with a tummy pain that came on and needs treatment, but not with a wobbly knee.
On every occasion I have accompanied even foreign nationals to A & E the only thing they have been asked to provide is an address in the UK. No charge was made.

2.4.1 EEA Retired Nationals

For the purposes of this section we define a 'retired person' as someone of the age of retirement of their country of origin, who exercises no professional activity, and who is in receipt of a State Pension from their home EEA country.

If you are an EEA national and in receipt of a State pension, or you suffer from long term incapacity, then in order to register with the French health system you will need to apply for a Form S1 certificate of entitlement from the social security authority in your country.

We also include in this category people under the age of retirement, but in receipt of long-term incapacity benefit.

UK nationals who relocated to France before January 2021 are entitled to an S1 when they reach State retirement age.

Those who hold an S1 certificate of exemption will only nominally be affiliated to the French health system (PUMA) for the purposes of administration, as European regulations grant them and their family members an entitlement to health cover via the certificate, paid for by their home country.

As a retired person, if you have an S1 you will continue to benefit indefinitely from free health insurance cover in France.
And allowed to access to NHS in UK.

If you are UK retired, of UK official retirement age, not early retired, in France, do you not have S1 cover in place? In which case you would be covered by NHS.

Thank you, I thought I was going mad but now understand about the tests, just have to sort out health cover now.

Mokryna - as Callistemon said there are plenty of HGVs on the roads in England. We drove up from Berkshire to co. Durham on Monday and there were nearly as many HGVs as cars.
Petrol supplies increased as we went north. London area and SE in general still short.
My sister and partner visited France from Scotland in August and had no problems with vaccines etc either way.

I think you need to have booked a day 2 test in the UK and have the details on your travel locator form before you leave France.
Does seem bonkers when the infection rate in France is only 47 per 100,000 now.

I can’t get my head round this. So flying to France, fully vaccinated no test required but coming back to England I need a test taken in France ?? Or when I return?

Whitewavemark2

Could you bring some food parcels with you please and a few gallons of petrol would also be appreciated. Thank you.

???

Sorry, no PCR required from England to France if fully vaccinated but completion of the declaration.

If you’re double vaccinated, with proof, no PCR before entering England. You need to book a day 2 PCR test before you leave France to be delivered to your English address, the reference for this must be on your passenger locator form, completed before travel. If you are flying, the airline may have a deal with a day 2 PCR provider, approved ones are on gov.uk travel.

So does that mean the photos of queues at Heathrow have been staged? It has certainly put me off visiting for the moment