ProACT Sam discusses the latest news for Expats. This series of updates is based on ‘BERT’: Brexit, Expat Residency and Travel, three of the key areas Expats Living and Working Abroad have told us they are interested in right now.

In the first of this series of updates for Expats, we discussed Expats and Brexit. In the second article, we looked at Expat residency and a need for applying for residency in order to protect rights prior to the end of the Brexit transition period.

Below, this third and final article in the short series brings us to travel issues faced by Expats, especially between the UK and the rest of the world.

How Coronavirus-related travel restrictions are affecting Expats, their families and their businesses

As many locations around the world are finding themselves relaxing lockdown rules, air travel restrictions continue to vary from country to country.

For EU countries, whilst some continue to protect borders, others have begun to open up air travel in stages from the start of June.

EU countries making it compulsory for arrival passengers to prove negative for Covid-19

To prevent further cases of the virus entering a country through overseas travel, many EU countries are adopting a system that makes it compulsory for all inbound travellers to prove on entering the country that they have tested negative for Covid-19 within 72 hours prior to their arrival, with passengers required to show certification.

This way, the receiving country knows that all passengers are Coronavirus-free, that airlines are following the required hygiene and distancing rules and no one is carrying the virus into the country.

The majority of countries adopting this method are allowing travellers who have proved they are not infectious, to enter without the need to quarantine. This also presents less risk to the welcoming country, as they don’t have to rely on travellers following quarantine rules.

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To boost travel and tourism, in Cyprus, the government is guaranteeing and paying medical fees for anyone getting ill on holiday this summer with the Coronavirus.

UK government’s 2-week quarantine is potentially devastating for Expats in the short term

The UK have taken the opposite approach to travel restrictions. They have based their approach on the knowledge that it takes 2 weeks for someone to be safely clear or to show Corona symptoms.

In effect, travellers to the UK don’t have to prove that they are Covid-19 negative before they arrive. Instead, travellers have to prove they don’t have Covid-19 by completing a 14 day quarantine period when they arrive in the UK.

This is devastating in the short term for Expats with businesses or holiday homes looking to travel between their property/business outside the UK and the UK itself.

To leave the UK on a business trip or visit a holiday home means you must lock down for a further 2 weeks on your return to the UK.

Worse still, there are no forward-planning dates available to plan trips in the summer of 2020. We only know at this time that the UK’s unique approach will be reviewed by the end of June.

ADAPT to overcome

Everyone has to learn to live with Coronavirus moving forwards.

Expat businesses must use the opportunity presented by these restrictions to adapt their business models.

This could mean creating holding companies or property trusts to hold assets cross-border and allow branches and staff to operate in different countries.

Within the EU, this offers Expat businesses a way to carry on after the Brexit transition period, whatever the outcome of trade negotiations.

It allows overseas property investors to protect assets from ownership rules post-Brexit, including for inheritance and gifting to family.

Businesses must look to adopt technology and innovate. The Coronavirus crisis will accelerate the adoption of new technologies and new consumer practices over the next year.

Don’t get left behind in the new world living with Covid-19.

To review how to adapt and update your overseas business and property assets, despite new travel rules, contact us at ProACT Partnership for Expat Know How.

ProACT Partnership works with businesses, employees, contractors, self-employed and retired people Living and Working Abroad to advise on how best to protect your Expat residency rights as well as protecting assets and families cross-border and down-generation.

Download our FREE Brexit Checklist for Expats for important points to monitor during the second half of the transition period.

For further help and advice regarding your individual circumstances, contact ProACT Partnership.

We offer a free review and work with Expats living in EU countries and all over the world.