Finland reopening borders for certain countries on 13 July 2020

Finland’s winter travel highlight: Snow Castle. Photo: Kemin LumiLinna

The Finnish government agreed in a meeting on 8 July 2020 that they have finally moved on to open border to several other EU Member States as well as to the residents of 11 third-countries.The Cabinet agreed to lift entry restrictions for the residents of number of countries after monitoring that the incidence of the Coronavirus are under control.

The reopening of borders has been completely based on the number of cases in each country for the previous two weeks. As a general rule, the borders have been opened to countries that have at most eight new cases of infected persons for every 100,000 citizens in the previous fortnight.Yet, countries with a maximum of 10 new cases of the disease per 100,000 persons in the previous 14 days are also considered for border reopening.

According to an official announcement said “Based on the current development of the epidemic, border control at the internal borders would be lifted for the following countries: the Netherlands, Belgium, Italy, Austria, Greece, Malta, Germany, Slovakia, Slovenia, Hungary, Liechtenstein and Switzerland. Finland has already abolished internal border control for traffic between Finland and Norway, Denmark, Iceland, Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania as well as for leisure boating,”

Based on this rule, borders remain closed for several EU countries – the Czech Republic, France, Luxembourg, Poland, Portugal, Spain and Sweden.

During its meeting, the Finnish Government has also asserted a recommendation of the EU Council on the lifting of restrictions on border traffic for 15 safe non-EU countries:

Along with further evaluation, residents of following countries are eligible to enter Finland from 13 July 2020: Algeria,Australia, Georgia, Japan, New Zealand, Rwanda, South Korea, Thailand, Tunisia, Uruguay, China.

For Canada, Montenegro, Morocco, Serbia – restrictions remain in place as all four have a higher rate of infections in a fortnight than eight new infections per 100,000 citizens, according to Schengen visa info.

Other travel restriction rules are

1.Return traffic to Finland and other essential traffic will be allowed at the external borders.

2.Transit traffic will be allowed at airports.

3.family members of Finnish citizens may enter the country regardless of nationality.

If the epidemic situation so permits, the Government will review its decisions on border traffic restrictions in two weeks’ time and, if necessary, make new decisions. The next changes in border traffic are scheduled to enter into force on 27 July 2020.

In the meantime, please view full information of Finland’s travel advice here to consider options to your travel plan.

About Zazithorn Ruengchinda

ScandAsia Journalist • Scandinavian Publishing Co., Ltd. • Bangkok Thailand

View all posts by Zazithorn Ruengchinda

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