When can fully vaccinated foreign nationals enter Canada
Fully vaccinated foreign nationals will be allowed to enter Canada for discretionary travel on specific dates:
- August 9, 2021: American citizens and permanent residents of the United States, currently residing in and arriving from the United States, and who qualify for the fully vaccinated traveller exemption
- August 9, 2021: French citizens who currently reside in Saint-Pierre-et-Miquelon and who qualify for the fully vaccinated traveller exemption
- September 7, 2021 (tentative): All other foreign nationals who qualify for the fully vaccinated traveller exemption
Exemptions for fully vaccinated travellers
If you qualify for the fully vaccinated traveller exemption you are exempt from:
- quarantine
- Day-8 testing requirement
If you provide essential services or already qualify for other exemptions from quarantine and Day-8 testing, you don’t need the fully vaccinated traveller exemption. If you think you qualify for other exemptions: find out if your travel is exempt.
Travelling with children or dependents who are not fully vaccinated
Travelling with children before August 9
Children under the age of 18, or dependent adults, who are not fully vaccinated, but who are accompanied by travellers who qualify for the fully vaccinated traveller exemption:
- are not required to stay at a government-authorized hotel
- must quarantine for 14 days
- must follow all testing requirements (unless under the age of 5)
Unvaccinated children under age 12
Unvaccinated children under the age of 12 who are accompanied by travellers who qualify for the fully vaccinated traveller exemption:
- must follow all testing requirements for pre-entry, arrival and Day-8 tests (unless under the age of 5)
- are exempt from quarantine as long as they follow the public health requirements outlined in the handout provided at the border
This applies to unvaccinated children under 12 years of age, who are accompanying a parent, step-parent, guardian or tutor who qualified as a fully vaccinated traveller when they entered Canada.
ArriveCAN: include unvaccinated children under the age of 12 as travellers in your submission. Once you fill out the form and successfully upload your proof of vaccination for family members over the age of 12, you will receive an ArriveCAN receipt for the border.
Unvaccinated youth aged 12 through 17
Unvaccinated youth aged 12 through 17 must follow all testing and quarantine requirements, whether or not they are accompanied by travellers who qualify for the fully vaccinated traveller exemption.
ArriveCAN Warning: do not include unvaccinated dependent youth aged 12-17 in your ArriveCAN submission. Complete your submission without them so that you have a receipt for the rest of the group. You will be able to provide the information for the youth(s) before boarding your flight or upon entry to Canada.
Travelling with unvaccinated adult dependents
Unvaccinated dependents age 18 or over, by reason of mental or physical limitation, must follow all testing and quarantine requirements, even when they are accompanied by parents or guardians who qualify for the fully vaccinated traveller exemption.
Check if you qualify for the exemption
To qualify for the fully vaccinated traveller exemption, you must:
- be eligible to enter Canada on the specific date you enter
- have no signs or symptoms of COVID-19
- have received the full series of an accepted COVID-19 vaccine or a combination of accepted vaccines
- have received your last dose at least 14 days prior to the day you enter Canada
- Example: if your last dose was anytime on Thursday July 1st, then Friday July 16th would be the first day that you meet the 14 day condition
- upload your proof of vaccination in ArriveCAN
- meet all other entry requirements (for example, pre-entry test)
Accepted COVID-19 vaccines in Canada
- Pfizer-BioNTech (Comirnaty, tozinameran, BNT162b2)
- Moderna (mRNA-1273)
- AstraZeneca/COVISHIELD (ChAdOx1-S, Vaxzevria, AZD1222)
- Janssen/Johnson & Johnson (Ad26.COV2.S)
- Bharat Biotech (Covaxin, BBV152 A, B, C)
- Cansino (Convidecia, Ad5-nCoV)
- Gamalaya (Sputnik V, Gam-Covid-Vac)
- Sinopharm (BBIBP-CorV, Sinopharm-Wuhan)
- Sinovac (CoronaVac, PiCoVacc)
- Vector Institute (EpiVacCorona)
- Other
The list of accepted vaccines may expand in the future.
Certified translations
If you received your vaccines outside Canada, it’s still accepted but proof of vaccination must be uploaded digitally in ArriveCAN and must only be in French or English, or certified translation into French or English.
Providing a certified translation if your proof is not in French or English
If your proof of vaccination is not in English or French, do not upload it into ArriveCAN.
Instead, you need to upload a certified translation in English or French.
Keep both the original proof of vaccination and the certified translation with you while you travel.
We only accept translations by a certified translator.
Your certified translation must include the stamp or membership number of a professional translation association.
If your proof of vaccination doesn’t meet all of the requirements it will be considered invalid and you will be required to:
- stay at government-authorized hotel to await the results of your arrival test before continuing on to your place of quarantine (if arriving by air)
- complete a quarantine period of at least 14 days
- complete a second test on day 8 of your quarantine
Recovered from COVID-19 with one dose
If you have recovered from COVID-19, you still need a full series of an accepted COVID-19 vaccine or combination of accepted vaccines. If you’ve only had one dose of an accepted vaccine other than Janssen (Johnson & Johnson), you don’t qualify for the fully vaccinated traveller exemption.
No exceptions for partially-vaccinated travellers
At this time, there are no exemptions from testing or quarantine for travellers who haven’t received the full series of a vaccine or a combination of vaccines accepted by the Government of Canada.
Date modified:
source: https://travel.gc.ca/travel-covid/travel-restrictions/covid-vaccinated-travellers-entering-canada#determine-fully