Coronavirus and the UK immigration system (as of 15 May 2020)

Travel to the UK

Compulsory quarantine

The government’s “COVID-19 recovery strategy”, last updated on 12 May, says that people travelling to the UK will soon be asked to go into quarantine for two weeks after they arrive. The document states:

… the Government will require all international arrivals not on a short list of exemptions to self-isolate in their accommodation for fourteen days on arrival into the UK. Where international travellers are unable to demonstrate where they would self-isolate, they will be required to do so in accommodation arranged by the Government.

There will be some exceptions, including for journeys within the Common Travel Area (covering the UK, Crown Dependencies and Ireland) and from France. There is no official date for this policy to begin: the government only says that it will come in “as soon as possible”. But the BBC has reported that “the new restriction is expected to take effect at the end of this month [May 2020]”.