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Comment by ryanlol | Hacker News Reader

> I certainly wouldn't risk passing a border with a fake certificate.

Border guards are even less interested in the validity of your covid certificates than nightclub bouncers. They have very limited amounts of time they can spend on processing people without the whole system collapsing

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Welcome to the Schengen area.

You will not enter any Schengen country without the border guard checking if you have an entry in the Schengen Information System.[1]

A reply is available within seconds after the border agent scans your ID document (passport or identification card).

Travelling between Schengen countries doesn't require an id or a passport, but currently countries have restrictions on entry most of them either insisting on you being vaccinated or to present a current Covid test.

I'm travelling to Paris by train on Friday. which has the following requirements for entry:

  From 9 June, fully vaccinated people from EU or 
  Schengen Associated Countries will not be subject to 
  testing or isolation requirements.

  Accepted vaccines:

  Pfizer/BioNTech
  Moderna
  AstraZeneca
  Johnson & Johnson (Janssen)

further

  All travellers (from 9 June: all non-vaccinated 
  travellers) are subject to the requirement for a pre- 
  departure negative COVID-19 test taken within 72 hours 
  prior to arrival.

Now sure, chances are small that I'm even checked in the train. But if I am then it would be pretty dumb to present fake documentation. Don't you think so?

[1] https://ec.europa.eu/home-affairs/what-we-do/policies/border...

What I don't understand is, why do countries require all that for people from countries which have pretty much the same number of infected as they do (per capita)? If chances of a local spreading the disease is the same as for the tourist, because both countries have eg. 95positive/100k people, why bother?

Recently, the argument has been that they don't want variants to cross borders. They eventually will, but it's one more reason to say that "covid outside" != "the covid we have at home".

But neither of the conditions in the EU pass says you don't have covid now. Vaccinations are not 100% (numbers go down to 70%, and a lot of infections for vaccinated people are asymptomatic, so even worse, because you don't stay at home, and noone tests you), PCR tests don't guarantee you didnt catch it between the test and "now", and having covid 5.5 months ago, does not guarantee you don't have it now.

But they increase the likelihood by a lot. There can't be a perfect system (apart from no one crosses the border, which is not feasible for other reasons), so this is a pretty good compromise.

Unless you drive by car and say you are in 'transit'. Nobody in Schengen will/can stop you (or even check). With the exception of the border police having reasonable doubt you are a border commuter/worker.

I’ve been regularly crossing schengen borders using fake documents since this whole nonsense started. Most of these papers are impossible to authenticate. Sure, these QR-codes will have cryptographic signatures, so we’ll just switch to foreign certificates instead.

Why would it be dumb to use fake documents when it’s literally impossible to get caught?

I can safely discuss this on the internet too, it’s not like anyone took photocopies of the documents I showed them.

FWIW I’m not some antivaxxer nutjob, I’m happy to wear masks and self isolate when I’m sick. I’m just going to fight the surveillance state in any way I can.

> You will not enter any Schengen country without the border guard checking if you have an entry in the Schengen Information System.[1]

This is actually not correct. Many EU citizens do not have SIS entries but are still able to travel. This is likely to change in the future though.

> I’ve been regularly crossing schengen borders using fake documents since this whole nonsense started

Why would you do that? Unless you're pulling some dodgy shit there is really no reason for this and frankly, I don't believe you.

> Many EU citizens do not have SIS entries but are still able to travel.

Huh? Of course you don't have an entry in the SIS if there's no reason to be entered. SIS is not a directory about every resident in the Schengen area, let alone the whole world. If you do have an entry, however (dpending on its contents) you can be damn sure that you're in for an extended interview with border authorities.

> Why would you do that? Unless you're pulling some dodgy shit there is really no reason for this and frankly, I don't believe you.

Because I like to travel regardless of government restrictions? Is that “dodgy shit”?

I just brought a friend who is a Russian citizen to France with documents showing that she had a car booked to transfer her to Switzerland for surgery.

Right now anyone entering the UK from certain countries needs documents to show that they’re in “transit” to avoid quarantines.

> Huh? Of course you don't have an entry in the SIS if there's no reason to be entered

My bad, I misunderstood what you were saying.

> Because I like to travel regardless of government restrictions? Is that “dodgy shit”?

Yes.

HTH!

> currently countries have restrictions on entry most of them either insisting on you being vaccinated or to present a current Covid test

Anecotal data point #1:

I've entered Italy three times [by road] in the last six months, each time with a sheaf of paperwork to hand demonstrating my need to travel, negative test, EU27 residency, the full nine yards.

During none of the three visits did I even see a border guard / police / Carabinieri / $whoever at or close to the border, never mind get stopped, never mind have my documents checked.

There is policy, and there is reality. Maybe the gap between them in Italy is marginally larger than in some other places?

AFIK the countries of the Shengen area haven't suddenly hired many guards to control everybody just because of COVID.

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