Which Vaccines Are Accepted to Travel in Canada?
Travelling to Canada for non-essential purposes is now possible since September for most nationalities. However, international travellers need to be vaccinated in order to enter the country.
What vaccines were approved by the Canadian administration? Other than the vaccines themselves, there are other requirements that need to be taken into account before travelling to Canada.
Which Vaccines Are Accepted to Travel in Canada?
It can be difficult to know which vaccines are approved by the Canadian government with numerous existing ones. There are several vaccines available to travel to Canada and they are as follow:
- Moderna
- Pfizer-BioNTech
- AstraZeneca/COVISHIELD
- Janssen/Johnson & Johnson
It is important to note that your vaccine certification must be in English or French. If not, you will still be able to travel but you’ll need to translate the original into one of these 2 languages before arrival.
The translation must be done and stamped by a professional translation association. Once you translated your vaccination certificate, upload it into the ArriveCAN and you’ll be ready to fly to Canada.
Bear in mind that you will be required to keep both the original and translation with you. Should your vaccination evidence doesn’t meet all the requirements, entrance to Canada may be refused on the ground of not qualifying as a fully vaccinated individual.
What Vaccines Are Not Accepted to Travel to Canada?
Out of all the vaccinations, 4 vaccines, were approved by the Canadian government at this moment. The other vaccinations are not valid to enter the country. These are:
- Sinovac
- Cansino
- Gamaleya
- Sinopharm
- Vector Institute
- Bharat Biotech
Currently, international travellers vaccinated with one of these vaccines are not allowed to enter Canada.
Do I Need to Quarantine to Enter Canada?
Fully vaccinated travellers with Pfizer, Moderna, Janssen (Johnson and Johnson), and AstraZeneca do not need to quarantine upon arriving in Canada.
On a side note, we want to highlight the fact that fully vaccinated travellers must have received their final jab a minimum of 14 full days prior to boarding the flight to Canada. If you were vaccinated on September 1st, you will be able to gain entry into Canada as of September 16th.
The international travellers who were not vaccinated or received only 1 dose of the Covid-19 vaccine (apart from Janssen) will be required to quarantine for 14 days.
What About the Covid-19 Tests?
Note that being fully vaccinated doesn’t mean that no tests are required. The Canadian government has indeed requested every traveller of any age from 5 years old to provide a negative molecular test. That test needs to have been taken between 14 days and 180 days before arrival.
On top of that, randomized tests are to be conducted at the airport.
Travellers that are able to provide a positive Covid-19 molecular test are exempted from these randomized tests. That said, these molecular tests need to be done at least 14 days and 180 days at most before their flight.
Also, travellers coming by boat or crossing the border by land are exempted as well.
ArriveCAN and Uploading Your Documents
Prior to boarding the plane, travellers will need to upload their documents. proof of vaccination, quarantine information, and travel details onto the ArriveCAN mobile app up to 72 hours before flying.
ArriveCAN is an important part of the process as international travellers that fail to upload their information will not be considered as being fully vaccinated individuals. This eventually results in their entry application being refused.
