HOW TO LINK VACCINE CERTIFICATE WITH YOUR PASSPORT

When it comes to health care insurance, every document is significant if you ever wish to claim medical treatments. Without proper and complete documentation your claim can get rejected. One such document that has now become necessary post-pandemic COVID-19 is the vaccine certificate. It has become a mandatory document in many health insurance policies. And is also required to be linked with your passport to be verified whenever you opt for international travel. Let’s take a look at what a vaccine certificate is and understand its relevance.

What is a Vaccine Certificate?

A vaccination certificate is created after a healthcare professional logs a COVID-19 vaccine dose for a recipient. The vaccination certificate will include information on the date/s of COVID-19 vaccine administration, vaccine manufacturer, lot number, and clinic or vaccine administration site name. It is basically the recipient’s vaccination certificate reflecting the COVID-19 vaccination dose/s in a documented form.

Depending on whether vaccinated or not, we get the allowance to travel abroad. In order to confirm that the vaccination is done, we have to carry this vaccine certificate issued by the government for any foreign travel. As no country wishes to let anyone travel without the vaccine and spread the virus if infected. With a vaccine, the infection is curbed and everyone can be safe, the recipient of the vaccine as well as the people of the country he/she is travelling to.

Suppose you are infected with COVID-19 during your medical treatment and while submitting a claim you do not have any vaccine proof then your claim can get rejected as the vaccine certificate determines that you have taken the vaccine against COVID-19 to avoid the spread of the virus. So, make sure to take all the vaccines and generate your certificate without fail.

Benefits of Vaccine Certificate

Knowing the importance of a vaccine certificate, let’s look at its premium benefits;

• Vaccine certificate helps keep track of vaccinated citizens across any country
• It includes the vaccination details of beneficiaries and confirms the current status
• It can aid to travel freely without the fear of infection or virus spread
• Downloading and storing of vaccine certificate is an easy and free process and can be accessed anywhere on the web

As you can see the vaccine certificate is highly relevant when it comes to international travel insurance or health care insurance.  You can download a vaccine certificate soon after completing your vaccinations. You shall be able to not only enjoy the benefits of stress-free travelling but also benefit by reducing the spread of the virus among people.

How to Link a Vaccine Certificate with a Passport?

After taking all the vaccines to fight the COVID-19 virus and generating your vaccine certificate, the next essential stage is to link your vaccine certificate with your passport to make your travel easy and safe. Let’s look at the steps on linking your vaccine certificate with your passport to be followed.

1. Go to the COWIN website at https://www.cowin.gov.in/
2. Now click on Register or Sign In button
3. Next, enter your Mobile Number
4. Then click on Verify & Proceed button
5. Following that click on the Raise an Issue button
6. Now click on Add Passport Details to my vaccination certificate
7. Then click on the SUBMIT REQUEST button. You select the member from the list and your date of birth here. And enter your passport number correctly in the “Enter Passport Number” tab. Then, tick in the declaration box saying “I declare that this passport belongs to the beneficiary. The passport holder's name is the same as mentioned on the vaccine certificate.”Finally, before submitting, give a final look and ensure that the given passport number and details are absolutely correct as it cannot be edited once submitted.Lastly, click on the ‘Submit Request’ button.
8. Now go to Request Confirmation. You can view this confirmation page on the screen itself. Once you click it you shall receive a confirmation message to your registered mobile number that the details of your vaccination digital certificate have been successfully updated and you can download the certificate from the registered account. Now, go back to the Account Details and click on the ‘International Travel Certificate' button. You will be able to download your vaccine certificate linked to your passport with ease.

So, in order to facilitate international travel, as a country’s citizen, firstly you need to be vaccinated fully with the required two doses of the vaccine, and secondly, your passport must be linked to the vaccine certificate. You must ensure that no mistakes or errors are made while entering the passport number and details as it cannot be edited once submitted and generated. Remember, the passport-vaccine certificate is an essential document for any international travel. An additional step that could be taken to safeguard yourself is getting an international travel plan insurance that fits your requirement.

FAQs – Frequently Asked Questions

Let's take a look at some frequent queries on How to Link a Vaccine Certificate with Your Passport;

Q1. Are both doses of vaccination mandatory?

Yes, taking both COVID-19 vaccination doses is mandatory. Also note, both should be of the same vaccine type.

Q2. Are there any restrictions on the number of times one can download a vaccine certificate from theCoWIN site?

There is no limitation to the number of times of downloading your vaccine certificate from the CoWIN site.

Q3. How to know if a vaccine certificate is real?

The CoWIN vaccine certificate contains a QR code which is used to verify if the vaccine certificate is genuine or fake.

Q4. Can a passport linked vaccination certificate be downloaded without a mobile number?

No, to download a passport linked vaccination certificate you need to provide a mobile number compulsorily to register as well as to download it.

Q5. Can passport linked vaccination certificates be downloaded from any application other than CoWin?

Yes, there is another site setup by the Indian government to download the vaccine certificate. You can check the Aarogya Setu app and gotoCoWIN tab to download the vaccination certificate. You can also get a vaccine certificate on your mobile number by sending a message to a government WhatsApp number mentioned on the CoWIN website.