Travel during covid19 restrictions

I'm British and I monitor this situation continuously.  I have elderly relatives in the UK and I want to see them but the situation is very difficult.

Look here:

UK government travel advice

Tells  you what you need to know as of the current status.  I'm afraid it doesn't look good - it's a hassle all round.  Note also that if your partner wants to collect you to accompany them back to HU, unless they move fast, they'll be quarantined in the UK.  The UK's new 14 day quarantine restrictions are coming in very soon.   There's no guarantee you can both get back in here either.

Restrictions in response to coronavirus

Hungary has restricted entry to foreign nationals.

Hungarian citizens and EEA citizens (including UK nationals) holding a Permanent Residence Card or a Registration Certificate and Address Card are allowed to enter the country following a medical examination at the border to check for signs of Covid-19 infection. Those individuals suspected of infection will be put into officially designated quarantine for 14 days. If there is no suspicion of infection, individuals will still be required to quarantine at home for 14 days.

From 4 May, citizens of the Czech Republic, Poland, the Republic of Korea, Germany, Austria and Slovakia may also enter Hungary from these countries for business purposes. This measure also allows Hungarian citizens to travel to and from these countries for business trips, provided that they are an employee of a domestic firm or company registered in one of these six countries and that the firm or company has business ties with another company registered in one of these six countries. Individuals who fall under this category of business travellers may enter Hungary without any restriction or requirement for self-isolation.

UK nationals who do not fall into the categories noted above, but who wish to enter Hungary for business, study or other reasons, or transit through Hungary, must submit an application for exemption on the official website of the Hungarian Police by completing an electronic form here (see the web site).

The form is currently only available in Hungarian and must be completed in Hungarian (note: I looked and couldn't find it).

The Hungarian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade recommend applications are submitted at least a few days before the planned travel day, clearly stating the justification for the exemption application. Anyone entering Hungary following this application route will need to follow the same quarantine rules as returning residents, as noted above.

I am not sure how any of this will work at the airports.

Hi
Thanks for your response to my enquiry.
Yes I've seen that link to the Hungarian Police website and yes unable to get the site to open in English so very difficult to know which forms to complete.
Total nightmare!! I really regret not getting my residency sorted last year.
I've now contacted the Hungarian consulate in London to see if they can provide any advise.
Thanks again for you response. I would be really grateful if you have any further advise. Take care.
Kind regards Michele

Ellehowe wrote:

Hi
Thanks for your response to my enquiry.
Yes I've seen that link to the Hungarian Police website and yes unable to get the site to open in English so very difficult to know which forms to complete.
Total nightmare!! I really regret not getting my residency sorted last year.
I've now contacted the Hungarian consulate in London to see if they can provide any advise.
Thanks again for you response. I would be really grateful if you have any further advise. Take care.
Kind regards Michele

No I don't have any further advice.  I have my cards, house and family here in HU so I would be OK in theory - when coming in.   My other UK family is more problematic. Going there is not so easy with the forthcoming 14 days mandatory quarantine.  It makes no sense to come here unless you're going to stay for months and bear the 14 days either end.  Going back, you need somewhere to be isolated.   I'm self-isolating here myself as I have medical conditions which would make me more vulnerable. To be honest, apart from rather odd situation and use of masks in shops, everything continues much as before.   There will be more weirdness come June and July when the Balaton season really gets going.

Good luck with the consulate. If you learn anything, be good to post back here so others can get some ideas.

fluffy2560 wrote:

Ellehowe wrote:

Hi
Thanks for your response to my enquiry.
Yes I've seen that link to the Hungarian Police website and yes unable to get the site to open in English so very difficult to know which forms to complete.
Total nightmare!! I really regret not getting my residency sorted last year.
I've now contacted the Hungarian consulate in London to see if they can provide any advise.
Thanks again for you response. I would be really grateful if you have any further advise. Take care.
Kind regards Michele

No I don't have any further advice.  I have my cards, house and family here in HU so I would be OK in theory - when coming in.   My other UK family is more problematic. Going there is not so easy with the forthcoming 14 days mandatory quarantine.  It makes no sense to come here unless you're going to stay for months and bear the 14 days either end.  Going back, you need somewhere to be isolated.   I'm self-isolating here myself as I have medical conditions which would make me more vulnerable. To be honest, apart from rather odd situation and use of masks in shops, everything continues much as before.   There will be more weirdness come June and July when the Balaton season really gets going.

Good luck with the consulate. If you learn anything, be good to post back here so others can get some ideas.

There are no flights in Austria.

Thank you.
I know its very difficult for everyone and I will gladly share any information I get from the consulate.
Hopefully it won't be long before we can meet up with our loved ones.
Stay safe
Regards michele

SimCityAT wrote:

...
There are no flights in Austria.

There are flights BUD to LTN but I expect they are mostly empty or used one way.   

The UK quarantine means it's not worth going.

It's really screwed up so much.   Some of the Fluffy family wanted to go to the Canary Islands to do a Spanish course but that's completely messed up now. 

Something has to give.

Greece & Cyprus have banned Brits till after the summer and a lot of countries have imposed a quarantine of 14 days also for Brits. Austria being one.

SimCityAT wrote:

Greece & Cyprus have banned Brits till after the summer and a lot of countries have imposed a quarantine of 14 days also for Brits. Austria being one.

Yes, that 14 day quarantine is spreading like ....errr.....coronavirus....

At this rate, I am not sure I will be able to visit the UK until next year.    My Dad was 96 last week.    He's in quite good health relatively speaking but we don't know if we will ever see him again.   I was visiting him every 4-6 weeks before COVID19.

Tourism and travel is we knew it before looks like it might be in a coma until 2021.  It'll be as though 2020 never happened.

fluffy2560 wrote:

SimCityAT wrote:

Greece & Cyprus have banned Brits till after the summer and a lot of countries have imposed a quarantine of 14 days also for Brits. Austria being one.

Yes, that 14 day quarantine is spreading like ....errr.....coronavirus....

At this rate, I am not sure I will be able to visit the UK until next year.    My Dad was 96 last week.    He's in quite good health relatively speaking but we don't know if we will ever see him again.   I was visiting him every 4-6 weeks before COVID19.

Tourism and travel is we knew it before looks like it might be in a coma until 2021.  It'll be as though 2020 never happened.

My dad is 80 in November, sister is 50 in August. We were due to have a family get together this year with family coming from all over the place including France and Spain. Well, that's out of the window now. Will have to be next year now. I don't think changing my name to Dominic Cummings will work.

Yes I'm worried Hungary will put a ban on us brits too as our government have done their usual shoddy handling of things.

There are flights to book from UK but whether I'll be let into Hungary is questionable.

Trying to keep positive but not easy in these weird times😷

Ellehowe wrote:

Yes I'm worried Hungary will put a ban on us brits too as our government have done their usual shoddy handling of things.

There are flights to book from UK but whether I'll be let into Hungary is questionable.

Trying to keep positive but not easy in these weird times😷

If there are flights you will be allowed in, its just the problem you could face is being stuck in quarantine for 14 days.

It's possible to travel by car from the UK to NL by ferry (I just did it); so apart from the distance for the onward journey by surface across the EU, may be an option for a single journey.

Cynic wrote:

It's possible to travel by car from the UK to NL by ferry (I just did it); so apart from the distance for the onward journey by surface across the EU, may be an option for a single journey.

Good info.   NL is not my favourite route but since France is out the picture now, there's perhaps no other way.

My usual journey by road is:

UK location-Dover-Calais-Liege-Koeln-Koblenz-Frankfurt-Nuenberg-Regensberg-Passau-Linz-Wien-Budapest

This way you can avoid any Peage/Tolls roads until you reach the AT border.

fluffy2560 wrote:

Cynic wrote:

It's possible to travel by car from the UK to NL by ferry (I just did it); so apart from the distance for the onward journey by surface across the EU, may be an option for a single journey.

Good info.   NL is not my favourite route but since France is out the picture now, there's perhaps no other way.

My usual journey by road is:

UK location-Dover-Calais-Liege-Koeln-Koblenz-Frankfurt-Nuenberg-Regensberg-Passau-Linz-Wien-Budapest

This way you can avoid any Peage/Tolls roads until you reach the AT border.

Have you seen this Fluffy? https://www.gov.uk/uk-border-control

Cynic wrote:

It's possible to travel by car from the UK to NL by ferry (I just did it); so apart from the distance for the onward journey by surface across the EU, may be an option for a single journey.

Travel can spread the disease. While the airports were monitored to stem virus movement, there is some evidenced that the virus entered Hungary by overland routes (which were not as well monitored).... So maybe a good idea to be a good social citizen, not egocentric, and not to try to circumvent travel restrictions just because governments are not all together smart enough, or don't have the money or logistics, to stop all travel options..... 

I should perhaps add that there were extenuating reasons for our journey and we got the written approval of the KMar to make this journey.  That said, the journey was unremarkable, nobody asked us any questions during the journey.

Ellehowe wrote:

Yes I've seen that link to the Hungarian Police website and yes unable to get the site to open in English so very difficult to know which forms to complete.

Hungarian government web sites provide non-Hungarian options only as a service. They may not be up to date or current (or even work well). The official, and only, reallyrelevant information is only in Hungarian.

If your SO does not speak Hungarian (and if they do, then they should help you with language issues), I suggest you to consider hiring a translator who can help you walk through the process and help you fill out the necessary forms, maybe over the phone, Skype, email, etc.

The Services section at Expat.com here may help:

https://www.expat.com/en/business/europ … erpreters/

Cynic wrote:

the journey was unremarkable, nobody asked us any questions during the journey.

Not blaming you in any way shape or form.

But.....

The above again shows how things *might* spread... If you went by air, you would have gotten questions... and maybe stopped if the answers were not correct. But... overland... having the correct paperwork does not matter if nobody asked questions along the route (i.e. those without paperwork maybe also got though).... so it becomes a possible source of disease transmission. Complicated.

Hi. I always travel via NL as I live in the North of UK. I always go Hull NL. Then drop into Route 3 and stay on it to Hungary. Good trip always. I usually drop down to the First Enfield crossing into Hungary as it is not busy at any time.

SimCityAT wrote:

Have you seen this Fluffy? https://www.gov.uk/uk-border-control

No, didn't see that.  I can see this being the new normal. I did know it was starting on 8th June. Obviously the UK government cannot stop British people entering the country but the HU authorities and all those in between can stop people at any and all border crossings.  Imagine if it was 14 days per border, even for transit!  Mein Gott....it'd be like the Middle Ages travelling by donkey.

markru wrote:

Hi. I always travel via NL as I live in the North of UK. I always go Hull NL. Then drop into Route 3 and stay on it to Hungary. Good trip always. I usually drop down to the First Enfield crossing into Hungary as it is not busy at any time.

I used to do that overnight one to Hull and treated it as part of a holiday.  We went on it perhaps 2 or 3 years ago but we usually go to Calais these days. 

The thing about Calais is that there's (or was) a ferry every couple of hours so if you missed it, then you had another chance.  I usually stopped overnight in Dunkirk (20km from Calais) as it's a lot easier than Calais for hotels and then get an early'ish ferry to Blighty (having breakfast on the ferry). 

Early enough and there's a chance to drive further north in daylight.  In winter, the low sun and short days are not too good.  In summer,  there's always enough time.  It's all much easier if there are two drivers (2h on, 2h off), three drivers (2h on, 4h off) and easier for non-stop.

klsallee wrote:

Cynic wrote:

the journey was unremarkable, nobody asked us any questions during the journey.

Not blaming you in any way shape or form.

But.....

The above again shows how things *might* spread... If you went by air, you would have gotten questions... and maybe stopped if the answers were not correct. But... overland... having the correct paperwork does not matter if nobody asked questions along the route (i.e. those without paperwork maybe also got though).... so it becomes a possible source of disease transmission. Complicated.

I saw a documentary yesterday on the BBC discussing COVID19 and there was a segment on how SARS was more contained in 2003.  Interesting thing was that China did not have as many people travelling back then and the timing was different - not the Chinese New Year.

They included a case study from Germany where one person with mild symptoms came to Germany to meet with people at head office and then returned to China by plane and infected a chain of about 13 people while in Germany.   This was back in February.   A rather real example of the R number being about 2.6.  The case study was about a company called Webasto (they make car parts).

Probably there's a big difference between vehicle travel and air travel in spreading the disease.  People in cars and ships or Eurostar can travel in a bubble, those on planes are very much in a definition of an anti-bubble.

Yeah, Hull is the route closest to us and under the current circumstances seemed to be the least risk so we went that way once the KMar said it was OK to enter NL.  The ferry was a Ghostship - I counted 20 cars and a few trucks.

Calais was going to be our choice this year (it's much cheaper and my time is less of an issue these days}, but of course circumstances have put the brakes on that.

Entry to Hungary overland from Serbia without quarantine is possible again, at least for Hungarians and Serbians. And anyone can enter Serbia from anywhere without quarantine or health certificate since the country fully re-opened its borders on May 22.

https://hungarytoday.hu/restrictions-li … er-roszke/

Whether that re-opening of the southern border indeed applies only to "citizens" or to foreign residents as well indicates the kind of uncertainty travellers are going to face as the world re-opens. News reports are often vague on the details, and finding the official rules online can be challenging.