EHAS application denied

We arrived in St. Maarten yesterday. The day before our departure, we filled out the EHAS forms, and a few hours later got this notice from the St. Maarten government by email: "Your EHAS application has been denied due to: Written or typed statement from a doctor or clinic is not accepted, only the original lab test result." In fact we had attached official lab results from the Department of Health of our state, on Department of Health letterhead, declaring our names, date of birth, date of test, the fact that it was a PCR test, and our negative results.

I called St. Maarten -- the phone number posted on this web forum; thanks for that! -- and reached a gentleman who said he would look into it and call back within an hour. He didn't call back.

I waited on hold three times for our state's Department of Health -- once I was disconnected after a 20 minute wait -- and after about 45 minutes was connected with a human being, who looked into our problem and emailed us another form -- one that looked more like a lab report. This second version of our lab results was used for new EHAS applications, which were approved a few hours later. Nerve-wracking, but it worked.

The St. Maarten government is not well served by its decision to reject lab reports from the Department of Health of a U.S. state government. I know for a fact that the form of report rejected by St. Maarten was acceptable to two other governments as proof of negative Covid results for purposes of travel to these other (less fussy) countries.

The attachment shows the lab report that was rejected.

I'm not certain that I understand the issue that the SXM government had with your test results. Is it possible for you to upload a picture of both test results (with critical sections blacked out, of course), so that we can see what they are rejecting, versus what we should be getting?? If you can't figure out how to post it, if you can email it to me, I will post it. My email address is chill@info-res.com

Carol,
I edited my original post, including an attachment that shows the report that was rejected.

Thanks. Could you also attach the one that was accepted?

The attached report was accepted. Note that this lab report is not usually sent out to patients. It took a special request to the health department to get a copy.

OK, thanks very much. Very helpful information!!

The form you sent in wasn't from the Lab as required so that is the reason you were turned down. They specifically state that letters written by Dr or anyone else is not acceptable. They want the one with Lab name on it and time and date and rt-PCR negative report on it.
Glad you got it right the 2nd time and hope you enjoy your time here.

The nerve-wracking part is the timing. If the report with the Covid test results is delivered later than expected -- as our reports were this time around -- the time window gets narrow. And applying for an EHAS can take many extra hours if the first application is denied. It's not always easy to reach a helpful human being on the phone at a Department of Health -- they're pretty busy these days -- so once the clock is ticking and getting closer to the time your flight is ready to take off, the stress increases.

Perhaps the government of St. Maarten was worried that the report from the Department of Health was a forgery. But frankly, the lab report that they accepted could also be a forgery. In this case, both reports were authentic -- but the government of St. Maarten erected an unnecessary roadblock to tourism.

Bad Benni,
Forgive me for assuming that a report from the Vermont Department of Health wouldn't be considered adequate. Frankly, before our application was rejected, I had no reason to think that the Vermont Department of Health didn't have its own lab. Evidently it doesn't, but that isn't obvious to Vermonters. These reports from the Vermont Department of Health are considered official for all other purposes besides entering St. Maarten -- including for the purpose of entering several other countries. The reports from the Vermont Department of Health are the only reports most Vermonters ever see.

OK, thanks very much for the post. I understand the issue now. Hopefully this will save someone else some heartache.

Thanks for this information...

"Not from a lab" is why it was rejected...probably not....the original report, albeit a tad wordy, says exactly what it should say....and....all of our tests (accepted in SXM and STT) were from the RI Dept. of Health . No lab name mentioned...date taken, type of test and results,,,and they ARE done in various private labs in RI

OK, now I am even more confused..

Name removed but here is what I received and was accepted.

Looks to me as if a "Department of Health" report is acceptable -- as long as it isn't in the form of a letter. A classic example of paying attention to the wrong details -- format rather than content.