Coronavirus testing for travel & "Test to Release" from quarantine

Once we receive your order, it will be dispatched same-day for orders placed before 2pm (Mon - Fri) or next-day using DPD tracked next-day delivery. You'll receive a confirmation email containing your tracking number when your kit has been dispatched.

Orders placed from 2pm on Friday to Sunday will be dispatched on Monday and will not be received until Tuesday. Similarly, kits cannot be dispatched on public holidays.

Yes - the lab is open 24/7 to receive and process samples throughout Christmas and the New Year. We'll continue to provide result certificates as usual.

Yes, if you need to collect a kit in person please contact us.

Some countries require the PCR test to be collected by a healthcare professional. We've teamed up with a pharmacy in Richmond who can take your swab for you. Please contact usif you need this service.

Royal mail has designated certain postboxes as "priority" for use with coronavirus testing. You must use these postboxes when returning samples with the Royal Mail Tracked 24hr, prepaid envelope contained in your kit.

When returning your samples, use the Royal Mail service finder to check the location of your nearest priority postbox.

If you have a tight time-window to perform a PCR test for travel, we strongly recommend returning your sample to our central London lab in person or using a same-day courier. The lab is open 24/7. Delivery details can be found below in the relevant FAQ item.

Please note, we cannot take responsibility for failure of Royal Mail (or other delivery service) to deliver samples to the laboratory for processing. Although the vast majority of samples returned by Royal Mail Tracked 24hr arrive in the lab the day after postage, occasionally some deliveries take longer. You may want to consider other delivery services if your testing window is very tight.

Some countries (e.g. Cyprus) are asking for tests to be taken within 72 hours of departure. This is a fairly tight turnaround time but we've helped hundreds of people do it.

If you have a 72hr time window, we strongly suggest you take the test as soon as you're in the window and then return the sample to the lab in person or by courier on the same day you take the sample. This gives them plenty of time to process your sample and return your result within 48 hours of receipt.

If you're on a tight timeframe please be aware that weekends and public holidays can interfere with returning your sample via Royal Mail.

We provide 24hr tracked return envelopes for your sample but Royal Mail do not deliver on a Sunday. If you need the sample to get to the lab by Sunday, either send it on Friday for receipt on Saturday or drop the sample of in-person or via a courier at the London lab (see below for more details on where the lab is).

Because of the tight testing window required by some countries (e.g. 72hrs) you may prefer to drop the sample off to the London lab in-person or use a courier to ensure you receive your result certificate on time for your flight. Please note, we don't arrange couriers, you must do this yourself.

Our lab partner (TDL) is based in central London and is open 24/7 - you can drop a sample off in-person any time.

Between 7am - 7pm Monday to Friday and 7am - 1pm Saturday samples can be delivered to:

• The Doctors Laboratory Patient Reception
• 76 Wimpole Street
• London
• W1G 9RT

You can download a map to the patient reception here.

Outside of the above hours and for couriers, samples can be delivered to the main laboratory at:

• The Doctors Laboratory
• The Halo Building
• 1 Mabledon Place
• London
• WC1H 9AX

Samples delivered to the main lab need to be taken to the entrance at the rear of the building, on Flaxman Terrace road, directly opposite "Mabel's Tavern" Pub. Just ring the buzzer and one of the lab staff will come and take the sample(s) from you. You can download a map here.

Once your sample has been received in the laboratory, we aim to return your result within 48 hours.

You will receive an email containing your result and an explanation of what it means. You'll also receive a certificate with our PCR Test Travel Service. We take you through a process to verify your email address before receiving results to ensure that it's secure.

We include your sample date and result date on your signed result certificate, along with key personal information including your passport number. The sample date is the date that your sample was taken. This is usually the date that must be within the testing window required by your destination country.

The result date is the date that your result was reported by the lab, which will be within 48hrs of us receiving your sample.

You can download an example of our test certificate and check that it meets your requirements.

Although we have worked hard to make sure our certificates provide the key details required for travel, we cannot be held responsible if a destination country chooses not to accept it as proof of testing.

We're a private company that sells testing services. The actual PCR tests themselves are performed by The Doctor's Laboratory (TDL). They are a UKAS accredited lab (i.e. accredited by the government's regulatory agency) and approved for use by Public Health England. TDL perform testing for the NHS and for private companies such as ourselves. Their status as an accredited laboratory can be easily verified on the UKAS website and an accreditation certificate downloaded.