How Does France’s Traffic Light System for Travel Work?

France’s traffic light classification system sees all countries listed as Green, Orange, and Red. Additional changes were made as of March, 2022 – see the map below for the full breakdown of countries.

Green countries

Green countries are areas where the virus isn’t widely circulating. These include all EU and Schengen zone countries, as well as Andorra, Iceland, Liechtenstein, Monaco, Norway, San Marino, Switzerland and the Vatican. In addition, the following countries and territories are added: South Africa, Albania, Angola, Antigua and Barbuda, Saudi Arabia, Argentina, Aruba, Azerbaijan, Bahamas, Bahrain, Bangladesh, Barbados, Belize, Benin, Burma, Bolivia, Bonaire, Saint Eustatius and Saba, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Botswana, Bhutan, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Brazil, Cambodia, Cameroon , Canada, Cape Verde, Chile, Colombia, Comoros, Congo, Ivory Coast, South Korea, Costa Rica, Cuba, Curacao, Djibouti, Egypt, United Arab Emirates, Ecuador, Eswatini, United States, Ethiopia, Fiji, Gabon, Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Equatorial Guinea, Guinea Bissau, Grenada, Greenland, Guatemala, Honduras, Hong -Kong, Faroe Islands, Mauritius, Solomon Islands, Turks and Caicos Islands, British Virgin Islands, US Virgin Islands, India, Indonesia, Iraq, Jamaica, Japan, Jordan, Kazakhs tan, Kenya, Kiribati, Kosovo, Kuwait, Laos, Lesotho, Lebanon, Liberia, North Macedonia, Madagascar, Malaysia, Malawi, Maldives, Morocco, Mauritania, Mexico, Moldova, Mongolia, Montenegro, Montserrat, Mozambique, Namibia, Nepal, Nicaragua, Niger, Nigeria, New Zealand, Oman, Uganda, Pakistan, Panama, Papua New -Guinea, Paraguay, Peru, Philippines, Puerto Rico, Qatar, Democratic Republic of Congo, Dominican Republic, United Kingdom, Rwanda, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saint Lucia, Saint -Vincent and the Grenadines, El Salvador, Samoa, Sao Tome and Principe, Senegal, Serbia, Seychelles, Sudan, South Sudan, Sri Lanka, Taiwan, Tanzania, Chad , East Timor, Togo, Tunisia, Turkey, Trinidad and Tobago, Ukraine, Uruguay, Vanuatu, Venezuela, Vietnam, Zambia and Zimbabwe.

Orange countries

Orange countries are areas where the virus is still circulating widely but is seen to be under control with no impending worry of variants.  Orange countries include Australia and all other countries not listed on the Green list.

Red countries

Red countries are areas where wide circulation of the virus is still a concern, as well as a “worrying presence of Covid variants”. All but essential travel is banned to these countries.

As of March 3rd, 2022, there are currently no countries on the Red list.

There are two things you need to take into account:

• The country you are travelling from and its classification – red, orange, or green.
• Your vaccination status – different rules are in place for fully vaccinated travellers

How does this work in practice? The full list of rules and requirements for each category are shown in the table below (in French), but these are the basics of what you need to know. To find the latest rules for the country you are travelling to or from, head over to the French government page here and use the search function to search for the specific destination. Travellers no longer need to fill in a declaration stating that they have no Covid-19 symptoms.

Travelling to France from a Green Country

• Both vaccinated and non-vaccinated travellers can enter France for any reason including visiting a second home, visiting friends and family, or tourism.
• If you are fully vaccinated, you will need to show proof of vaccination (see below).
•  You will also, of course, need to follow any non-Covid related rules regarding visas or entrance to the EU depending on your country of origin.
• Non-vaccinated travellers must present a negative Covid-19 test (an “RT-PCR-COVID” virological screening test or an antigenic test), which must be carried out less than 48 hours (antigen tests) or 72 hours (PCR tests) before departure (for connecting flights, this is from the departure time of the first flight). Travellers under 12 years old do not need to take a test.

You can find the official rules for travelling to and from France and a Green country here (scroll down for the English versions).

Travelling to France from an Orange Country

• Fully vaccinated travellers can enter France for any reason including visiting a second home, visiting friends and family, or tourism.
• If you are fully vaccinated, you will need to show proof of vaccination (see below).
•  You will also, of course, need to follow any non-Covid related rules regarding visas or entrance to the EU depending on your country of origin.
• Non-vaccinated travellers can only enter France with an essential reason, which does not include property owners, family visits, or tourism of any kind. You can see the full list of the essential reasons here.
• Non-vaccinated travellers must present proof of their essential reason for travel and a negative Covid-19 test (an “RT-PCR-COVID” virological screening test or an antigenic test), which must be carried out less than 48 hours before departure (for connecting flights, this is from the departure time of the first flight). Travellers under 12 years old do not need to take a test.
• You must also self-isolate for seven days and take a second test following the quarantine period.

You can find the official rules for travelling to and from France and an Orange country here (scroll down for the English versions).

Travelling to France from a Red Country

• Non-vaccinated travellers can only enter France with an essential reason, which does not include property owners, family visits, or tourism of any kind. You can see the full list of the essential reasons here.
• Vaccinated travellers must present proof of vaccination (see below). All travellers over 12 years old travelling from a non-EU country to France (including French residents and French citizens returning from their travels) must present a negative Covid test taken within 48 hours of departure. The test must be a PCR test or rapid-result antigen or lateral flow test, providing the test is ‘capable of detecting the N protein in Covid’.
• You must submit to an antigen test on arrival in France, if requested (and if the results are positive, you will be asked to quarantine).
•  You will, of course, need to follow any non-Covid related rules regarding visas or entrance to the EU depending on your country of origin. Travellers under 11 years old do not need to take a test.
• Non-vaccinated travellers have even stricter rules on entry. They must present proof of their essential reason for travel and a negative Covid-19 test (an “RT-PCR-COVID” virological screening test or an antigenic test) taken less than 48 hours before travel. They will also be required to quarantine at a registered address for 10 days (enforced by police checks) and take a second test following the quarantine period.

You can find the official rules for travelling to and from France and a Red country here (scroll down for the English versions).

Vaccinated travellers must have received a vaccine approved by the European Medicines Agency, i.e. Pfizer, Moderna, AstraZeneca or Johnson & Johnson (Janssen). For double-dose vaccines, you must wait at least two weeks after the final injection to travel. For single-dose vaccines, you must wait at least four weeks after the vaccine to travel. You will need to present proof of your vaccination on arrival.

Booster vaccines required

As of January 30th, 2022, all travellers to France must have received a booster vaccine within nine months (270 days) of your second vaccine dose in order to be considered “fully vaccinated” for entry to France.

Travelling to France With Unvaccinated Children

The official rules on travelling with children are that: “The vital reasons and quarantine measures applied to vaccinated adults are extended under the same conditions to accompanying minors, whether or not they are vaccinated.” This means that if you are able to travel (either because you have an essential reason to travel or because you are vaccinated), your children will be able to travel with you.

Children over the age of 11 who are not vaccinated will need a negative Covid-19 test (an “RT-PCR-COVID” virological screening test or an antigenic test), which must be carried out less than 24 hours before departure (for connecting flights, this is from the departure time of the first flight). Children under the age of 11 will not need to take a test. Both will need to fill in the declaration form.

Remember that this ruling also applies to any necessary quarantine or self-isolation periods or re-testing. Your children will also need to follow the same protocol and over 11s will need to take a second test.

Note that children aged 12 and over visiting France will also need a Vaccine Pass to enter certain establishments and events, and to access long distance transport  – read more about that here.