Originally Posted by GUWonder

Even as Iceland is not in the EU, Iceland is part of the Schengen zone and is signed up to go along with the EU’s Schengen controls applicable to third country nationals at Schengen ports of entry. So even with a direct US-Iceland flight, prospective US and Canadian tourists to Iceland commonly have to meet Iceland’s national admissibility requirements and the Schengen area’s ones too for third country nationals. Iceland can desire to have all the American and Canadian tourists it wants, but unless and until the EU changes the Schengen zone ban or Iceland quits Schengen — the latter of which Iceland wouldn’t even consider today — Iceland will probably have to wait for the EU to change the Schengen ban rules that currently keep out the average US and Canadian tourist from being admissible into the Schengen zone. Until the EU changes the rules, most US and Canadian passport users remain inadmissible into Iceland. Of course Iceland could just say that they will give an Icelandic residence permit to all US or Canadian passport user traveling to Iceland, but the chances of an Icelandic government doing that this year is about as likely as a non-stop flight from Iceland to Yapp.