On Friday, January 15, 2021, Austria will introduce a mandatory pre-entry notification. This must be done via the Internet and is called “Pre-Travel-Clearance” in the official Austrian language. This must be completed by every traveler, regardless of whether they come from a “risk area” or not.

When entering Austria, a confirmation of sending, which you receive after sending the form electronically, must be carried with you in paper form or on a smartphone or tablet PC and presented to a control body if requested. It is still unclear whether there will be penalties for disregard.

The government officially introduces “pre-registration” to improve so-called contact tracing. But one rather hopes that people who come from a "risk area" but have switched to a "non-risk country" can be found in air traffic in order to be able to put them in quarantine. However, the government assumes that those wishing to enter the country provide honest information, because de facto it is difficult to check whether the person has actually been in a “non-risk country” for at least ten days, especially within the Schengen region, due to the lack of a passport stamp.

The provisions that came into force on December 19, 2020 should remain unchanged. The government, led by Chancellor Sebastian Kurz, lied to the population again, because it was assured that the forced quarantine would only apply during the Christmas period up to and including January 10, 2021. There is no longer any question of that and Incidentally, it never was in the form of the regulation. One also wants to throw countries like Ireland and Uruguay off the list of "safe states". In return, Greece and Singapore are to be added.

Federal Minister Rudolf Anschober has not yet issued the ordinance. It is still open whether the “German model” will be copied again and thus double testing will be introduced. This would mean that a negative PCR or antigen test would have to be presented upon entry and then a ten-day quarantine would have to be commenced, which can be ended after ten days at the earliest by means of a negative PCR or antigen test. The current state of affairs is that only the “freest” after five days is “required”.

An indication that a test template will be mandatory: business trips should be possible without quarantine. The negative antigen or PCR results can be uploaded when registering the trip online. This means that the technical requirements are already in place for all other people. It is also unclear: If the report has not yet been delivered at the time of the entry registration, will it also be recognized in paper form? Furthermore: Which authorities have access to the entry data and any test results that may have been uploaded?

As before, some exceptions are planned. The privileged groups of people include commuters, transit travelers and matters that cannot be postponed such as court summons or funerals. However, the exact form has not yet been determined. In the next few days, Anschober (Greens) wants to publish its latest regulation in the Federal Law Gazette.

The form is below this link to disposal. Then enter the word "entry" in the search box. The “Pre-Travel Clearance Form” is then available in German and English.