Canadian requirements for fully vaccinated traveling into Canada (split)

[darth vader 133]

Does someone know the current status of border crossing requirements, into Canada from U.S. for fully vaccinated individuals? I checked the official website and it says fully vaccinated folks may still be subjected to random testing. Not sure what that means? They may still have to quarantine and wait for test results? I know the pre-entry testing requirement is going away in April, but wondering mainly about after-entry test and quarantine requirements. If anyone has any recent experience/information on how the travel back to Canada works for fully vaccinated Canadian citizens and PRs, please share.

Edited March 20, 2022 by darth vader

[From_CAN_2_US 1,106]

2 hours ago, darth vader said:

Does someone know the current status of border crossing requirements, into Canada from U.S. for fully vaccinated individuals? I checked the official website and it says fully vaccinated folks may still be subjected to random testing. Not sure what that means? They may still have to quarantine and wait for test results? I know the pre-entry testing requirement is going away in April, but wondering mainly about after-entry test and quarantine requirements. If anyone has any recent experience/information on how the travel back to Canada works for fully vaccinated Canadian citizens and PRs, please share.

Random Testing means just that. Even if you are vaccinated, you may be randomly selected at the border crossing/ airport for on-arrival testing. If you are vaccinated you don’t need to quarantine while you await results, but should your results come out to be positive, you will need to self isolate for 10 days.

 

How they “randomly” select, I don’t know and don’t think anyone here can answer. It is likely up to the discretion of the CBSA officer. When my husband crossed the border into Canada on Feb 10 or several times before that, he wasn’t tested.

Edited March 20, 2022 by From_CAN_2_US

[Lemonslice 4,921]

5 hours ago, From_CAN_2_US said:

Random Testing means just that. Even if you are vaccinated, you may be randomly selected at the border crossing/ airport for on-arrival testing. If you are vaccinated you don’t need to quarantine while you await results, but should your results come out to be positive, you will need to self isolate for 10 days.

 

How they “randomly” select, I don’t know and don’t think anyone here can answer. It is likely up to the discretion of the CBSA officer. When my husband crossed the border into Canada on Feb 10 or several times before that, he wasn’t tested.

My husband was also "randomly" selected and it was not a problem; they gave him a box to self-test at home.  Purolator even came to pick up his box.  Nothing to worry about. 

 

@darth vader the requirements will change early April, if I am not mistaken.  Could also change at anytime in the future - hopefully not to anything more restrictive. 

[Ontarkie 14,305]

~~Post and replies split off an unrelated thread and moved to the Covid forum - as a better place for this discussion~~

[darth vader 133]

On 3/20/2022 at 7:47 AM, Lemonslice said:

My husband was also "randomly" selected and it was not a problem; they gave him a box to self-test at home.  Purolator even came to pick up his box.  Nothing to worry about. 

 

@darth vader the requirements will change early April, if I am not mistaken.  Could also change at anytime in the future - hopefully not to anything more restrictive. 

The problem is we may be travelling within Canada and may not be home for 3-4 days after arrival in Canada. So if we are selected randomly, I do not know how this will all shake out. Why do they still have this random test requirement for fully vaccinated people is beyond me. Ugh. Can we delay sending the sample back by a few days if we are travelling within Canada?

Edited March 31, 2022 by darth vader

[Lemonslice 4,921]

1 hour ago, darth vader said:

The problem is we may be travelling within Canada and may not be home for 3-4 days after arrival in Canada. So if we are selected randomly, I do not know how this will all shake out. Why do they still have this random test requirement for fully vaccinated people is beyond me. Ugh. Can we delay sending the sample back by a few days if we are travelling within Canada?

It takes about 5 minutes to do.  It is very easy and you do not need to stay home (or elsewhere) for any period of time.  I have to do it once directly at the border (they had a tent), then my husband did it once with the virtual nurse/box at home.  I think you are overthinking this one - most people do not have to test, it is random.

[darth vader 133]

1 minute ago, Lemonslice said:

It takes about 5 minutes to do.  It is very easy and you do not need to stay home (or elsewhere) for any period of time.  I have to do it once directly at the border (they had a tent), then my husband did it once with the virtual nurse/box at home.  I think you are overthinking this one - most people do not have to test, it is random.

Yeah, the best bet if you are travelling internally in Canada immediately after arrival (as in our case) is to hope that you do not get selected for "random testing" when you arrive in Canada. I called CBSA, public health and though no one knows accurately, the consensus seems that if your result comes back positive, you will have to quarantine at your expense at whatever place in Canada you may be at the time you get the positive results. This means you may be stuck isolating at a hotel paying handsomely for the privilege. I guess the lesson is to travel more than 10 days in advance to make sure you have enough time to isolate if selected for random testing, and if the test comes back positive.

[Lemonslice 4,921]

2 minutes ago, darth vader said:

Yeah, the best bet if you are travelling internally in Canada immediately after arrival (as in our case) is to hope that you do not get selected for "random testing" when you arrive in Canada. I called CBSA, public health and though no one knows accurately, the consensus seems that if your result comes back positive, you will have to quarantine at your expense at whatever place in Canada you may be at the time you get the positive results. This means you may be stuck isolating at a hotel paying handsomely for the privilege. I guess the lesson is to travel more than 10 days in advance to make sure you have enough time to isolate if selected for random testing, and if the test comes back positive.

You can also visit for less than 10 days and return home.  

[darth vader 133]

Just now, Lemonslice said:

You can also visit for less than 10 days and return home.  

Unless something has changed, that is only allowed if you travel back to U.S. in a private vehicle. Anyway, best bet is to not travel when you do not have 10-14 days of buffer for any eventuality in terms of test results.