Landing for unvaccinated family

[Mehdy1]

We are planning to land in Canada in early July and our vaccine is unfortunately not recognized in Canada (Sputnik-V). We don't have other options available in our CoR so we will take the unvaccinated route ( 14-days quarantine) and take a recognized vaccine after settling (me, my wife and our 13, 10 and 4 yo children). As NSNP applicants our final destination will be Nova Scotia.
At the moment there are no direct flights to Halifax from my CoR (Russia) so our port of entry will be most probably Toronto or Montreal than a domestic flight to Halifax. From the travel.gc.ca page on boarding requirements:

"New permanent residents and resettling refugees who don’t qualify as fully vaccinated will be allowed to travel onward in Canada in order to get established. If you’re a foreign national allowed entry into Canada without qualifying as fully vaccinated, you may take a connecting flight that is scheduled to depart within 24 hours of the departure time for your flight to Canada. Foreign nationals authorized entry into Canada can continue to their final destination using their valid pre-entry test result as long as the scheduled departure time of their domestic flight is within 24 hours of the departure time for their flight to Canada."

If I read correctly, we will be able to to do the landing procedure in YZZ or YUL, then take a domestic flight to YHZ within 24h then quarantine for 14 days in Halifax. It sounds that if we choose to quarantine upon arrival we will not be allowed to board a domestic flight after 14 days even with a new Covid test.
How does it work in practice? How to use ArriveCan for this specific case?
Would love to hear from people who faced similar experience.

Thank you!

 

[canuck78]

We are planning to land in Canada in early July and our vaccine is unfortunately not recognized in Canada (Sputnik-V). We don't have other options available in our CoR so we will take the unvaccinated route ( 14-days quarantine) and take a recognized vaccine after settling (me, my wife and our 13, 10 and 4 yo children). As NSNP applicants our final destination will be Nova Scotia.
At the moment there are no direct flights to Halifax from my CoR (Russia) so our port of entry will be most probably Toronto or Montreal than a domestic flight to Halifax. From the travel.gc.ca page on boarding requirements:

"New permanent residents and resettling refugees who don’t qualify as fully vaccinated will be allowed to travel onward in Canada in order to get established. If you’re a foreign national allowed entry into Canada without qualifying as fully vaccinated, you may take a connecting flight that is scheduled to depart within 24 hours of the departure time for your flight to Canada. Foreign nationals authorized entry into Canada can continue to their final destination using their valid pre-entry test result as long as the scheduled departure time of their domestic flight is within 24 hours of the departure time for their flight to Canada."

If I read correctly, we will be able to to do the landing procedure in YZZ or YUL, then take a domestic flight to YHZ within 24h then quarantine for 14 days in Halifax. It sounds that if we choose to quarantine upon arrival we will not be allowed to board a domestic flight after 14 days even with a new Covid test.
How does it work in practice? How to use ArriveCan for this specific case?
Would love to hear from people who faced similar experience.

Thank you!

Adults need to be vaccinated to fly domestically so your only option is to travel to NS after landing in another city. You will have to decide whether you want to get vaccinated with approved vaccines on arrival. You will need 2 vaccines to travel at the moment. Essentially once you get to NS you will be there for a while unless you drive somewhere.

 

[armoured]

If I read correctly, we will be able to to do the landing procedure in YZZ or YUL, then take a domestic flight to YHZ within 24h then quarantine for 14 days in Halifax. It sounds that if we choose to quarantine upon arrival we will not be allowed to board a domestic flight after 14 days even with a new Covid test.
How does it work in practice? How to use ArriveCan for this specific case?

I think was covered below properly. The one thing I'd add to check carefully - very important - check with the airline that is providing your YHZ flight (hopefully same as your arrival in Canada).

I don't know where you are BUT some countries/locales are providing EU-recognized vaccination certificates if you get eg a Pfizer booster after the full Sputnik regime. I emphasize, I do not know if that is feasible for you, nor do I know if Canada will recognize that EU certificate. But it may be worth looking into.

(We arrived with sputnik and had to quarantine but we didn't have to connect via an internal flight)

 

[Mehdy1]

Adults need to be vaccinated to fly domestically so your only option is to travel to NS after landing in another city. You will have to decide whether you want to get vaccinated with approved vaccines on arrival. You will need 2 vaccines to travel at the moment. Essentially once you get to NS you will be there for a while unless you drive somewhere.

That's my plan indeed, to get vaccinated as soon as we are in NS. I am also aware that we will have to wait several weeks for the 2nd shot.

 

[Mehdy1]

I think was covered below properly. The one thing I'd add to check carefully - very important - check with the airline that is providing your YHZ flight (hopefully same as your arrival in Canada).

I don't know where you are BUT some countries/locales are providing EU-recognized vaccination certificates if you get eg a Pfizer booster after the full Sputnik regime. I emphasize, I do not know if that is feasible for you, nor do I know if Canada will recognize that EU certificate. But it may be worth looking into.

(We arrived with sputnik and had to quarantine but we didn't have to connect via an internal flight)

Thank you for the suggestion, I am in Russia so unfortunately no other vaccines than Sputnik are available here, and travelling to other countries to get a recognized vaccine is tricky. My only option seems to get a recognized vaccine once in Canada.

 

[armoured]

Thank you for the suggestion, I am in Russia so unfortunately no other vaccines than Sputnik are available here, and travelling to other countries to get a recognized vaccine is tricky. My only option seems to get a recognized vaccine once in Canada.

My understanding is that the approach I referred to works for Armenia and possibly other countries, perhaps Georgia and Serbia. But again, I'm not sure if that would be recognized in Canada, so perhaps not worth the trouble (given the circumstances).

On the positive side once you are in Canada, in Ontario at least, you can book your first shot while still in quarantine without health insurance being recognized, and supplies of the vaccines are quite good right now. (I would think the same in Nova Scotia but no personal experience)

We had received both vaccine shots five weeks after landing (two weeks quarantine, first shot first day out, second shot the three weeks later).

And no-one had a bad reaction despite having had sputnik before (of all the shots, I think two felt a bit dodgy for half a day, but that's what they said was a common minor side-effect, a bit of extra sleep and they were fine).

Good luck.

 

[Mehdy1]

Thank you for your suggestion, I've checked and it is also possible to register for the first shot in NS without health insurance. I hope they will scrap the quarantine requirement by summer, but there are no indications that the federal government is planning or willing to do so.
We will most probably follow the same route you took.