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US reopened on 8 November 2021 (& subsequent entry restrictions for non-citizens)

Old Sep 15, 21, 1:47 pm
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Last edit by: NewbieRunner
New thread for discussing 1-day test requirements for travellers arriving in the US by air
https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/coronavirus-travel/2060730-us-require-air-travelers-provide-negative-test-within-1-day-departure.html

Entry ban from eight southern African countries starting on November 29, 2021

Most non-U.S. citizens who have been in South Africa, Botswana, Zimbabwe, Namibia, Lesotho, Eswatini, Mozambique or Malaw within the prior 14 days will not be allowed into the United States.

https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/presidential-actions/2021/11/26/a-proclamation-on-suspension-of-entry-as-immigrants-and-nonimmigrants-of-certain-additional-persons-who-pose-a-risk-of-transmitting-coronavirus-disease-2019/

Entry ban by air to be lifted on November 8, 2021 - All travelers should refer to CDC for travel requirements.

3 day pre-flight testing requirement will continue (US citizens/LPR not vaccinated will have to test no earlier than 1 day prior) Children under 2 years old do not need to test.

Children under 18 are exempt from vaccination requirement
Accepted vaccines will include:
  • AstraZeneca
  • BIBP/Sinopharm
  • Covishield
  • Janssen/J&J
  • Moderna
  • Pfizer-BioNTech
  • Sinovac
Vaccination certificates must come from an official source
There is a face mask mandate when flying to/from the USA, with effectively no exemptions, and including children two and above years old
Airlines need to provide some sort of contact tracing information for potential follow-up cases

Update on U.S. travel policy requiring COVID-19 vaccination
Last Updated: October 25, 2021

As announced by the White House today, the new travel policy requiring foreign nationals traveling to the United States to demonstrate proof of full vaccination against COVID-19 will take effect November 8. The CDC’s website explains that, for purposes of entry into the United States, the accepted vaccines will include FDA approved or authorized and WHO Emergency Use Listing vaccines.

COVID-19 Travel Restrictions and Exceptions - U.S. Department of State, Bureau of Consular Affairs
Last updated: October 25, 2021

The presidential proclamations described on this page will no longer be in effect on November 8, 2021. For additional information, please see Safely Resuming Travel by Vaccine Requirement and Rescission of Travel Restrictions on Brazil, China, India, Iran, Ireland, the Schengen Area, South Africa, and the United Kingdom (travel.state.gov).

To protect the public health, there are four presidential proclamations that suspend entry into the United States of all noncitizens who were physically present in any of 33 countries during the 14-day period preceding their entry or attempted entry into the United States. They are Presidential Proclamation 9984 (China); Presidential Proclamation 9992 (Iran); Presidential Proclamation 10143 (Schengen Area, United Kingdom, Ireland, Brazil, and South Africa); and Presidential Proclamation 10199 (India).

What we know so far is
- Confirmed to start on 8 November
- Children under 18 are exempt from the vaccine restrictions, so the varying international standards on jab ages won't be an issue here.

- Vaccines that are OK will include Pfizer, Moderna, AZ, J&J and the two Chinese vaccines.
- Some exemptions from vaccinations are potentially allowed, notably for US citizens, though my guess is airlines will be expecting to see vaccine certificates

- 3 day pre-flight testing requirement will continue, so this needs to be a documented antigen/Lateral Flow test or PCR.
- 3 days is potentially more than 72 hours, departure on a Friday afternoon means a test on Tuesday morning or thereafter.
- NHS Lateral Flows and PCRs can't be used.
- Children over 2 years old travelling with vaccinated travellers have to be tested on the same basis (3 days).
- 1 day testing for unvaccinated USA legal residents (testing on or the day before departure), including their children.

- All passengers need to sign an attestment to confirm their negative test result and also a statement to confirm full vaccination status.
- Children who are not vaccinated do not need to get vaccinated but do need to get a "viral test" 3 to 5 days after arrival in the USA
- As a result there is a separate attestion question for unvaccinated children to confirm that the viral test is arranged.

- Vaccination certificates must come from an official source. The NHS COVID Pass app and EU DCC are specifically mentioned as acceptable.
- Vaccination is counted as two weeks from dose2, or 2 weeks after the sole dose in the case of J&J.
- Antibody certification is not a replacement for the need for vaccination, at least for non USA residents.
- 14 clear days need to elapse before travel. So if jabbed on 1 October then 15 October is when you are good to go.
- Booster vaccinations are not a factor here, they don't count towards or against the primary dose process.

- There is a face mask mandate when flying to/from the USA, with effectively no exemptions, and including children two and above years old.
- Airlines need to provide some sort of contact tracing information for potential follow-up cases.
- These restrictions do not apply at the land border.

Note that a lot of interpretation onus falls on airlines. For example there is no language requirement for vaccine certificates as far as the CDC is concerned, however you can imagine Air France may be hesitant in accepting a vaccine certificate issued in the Welsh language, to take one example.

CDC link
https://www.cdc.gov/media/releases/2...el-System.html


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US reopened on 8 November 2021 (& subsequent entry restrictions for non-citizens)

Old Jul 5, 21, 12:42 pm
  #1486  
 
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Originally Posted by Panos17 View Post
Another interesting article from a major US news source. Looks like there is some movement which is reassuring.
https://thehill.com/policy/internati...ic-travel-bans



I wouldn't call this movement. It's just interest groups complaining more, which hasn't had much effect thus far.
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Old Jul 5, 21, 12:54 pm
  #1487  
 
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Originally Posted by Panos17 View Post
[OFFTOPIC]No it's not ok, think if you were working in the tourism-entertainment sector (hotels, casinos, theme parks etc.)[/OFFTOPIC]
Did a bit of traveling recently and everything seems to be packed to the gills in the US (both restaurants, hotels and airports). Maybe someone can provide hard data against this notion but my casual observations suggest that we can deal without foreign tourists, at least for now. Not that we should but we can so government has no incentives to change their policy, and with BoJo going all in starting mid July I just don't see that happening. UK is going to be a mess covid-wise for the next month or two.
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Old Jul 5, 21, 12:56 pm
  #1488  
 
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Originally Posted by lhrsfo View Post
And I would have voted for him FWIW, had I had a vote, but I'm now beginning to question that.
Well, I do have a vote. And, I'm going to vote against anyone who had or will have anything to do with lockdowns. Yes, I'm still sore and p*ssed at being dictated to, forced to shelter in place and the SFO quarantine.
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Old Jul 5, 21, 1:59 pm
  #1489  
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I have my mom booked on a great award J flight on AA nonstop to DFW from LHR Aug 20. Unfortunately this flight will probably get canceled because of the ban. Too bad.
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Old Jul 5, 21, 3:02 pm
  #1490  
 
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Originally Posted by LETTERBOY View Post
I wouldn't call this movement. It's just interest groups complaining more, which hasn't had much effect thus far.
This article was posted by a major news source in the United States, not by some random group. When there's smoke, there's fire.


Originally Posted by enviroian View Post
I have my mom booked on a great award J flight on AA nonstop to DFW from LHR Aug 20. Unfortunately this flight will probably get canceled because of the ban. Too bad.
Mine is for mid September..
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Old Jul 5, 21, 3:08 pm
  #1491  
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White House staff is transitioning back to in-office work as of tomorrow morning. That should in some ways act as a sign of things moving forward to a further reopening by the US federal government. Eventually that will be followed by opening up to more travel abroad. But with US hotel rates at close to 100% of 2019 levels — and that is even despite big city business destination hotels at around 15-20% below 2019 levels — and domestic airfare as high as it is, any surge in foreigners’ visits to the US will drive up those room rates, airfares and car rental rates even more up into the stratosphere.
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Old Jul 5, 21, 3:14 pm
  #1492  
 
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Originally Posted by DL77 View Post
Sure, sure. But we are not just talking about tourism, this unmotivated madness is also blocking work visas holders, investors and tax payers. Stop tourism is ok but the rest is unacceptable.
Stopping tourism is not acceptable. There is no justification for it anymore. It is now elevating American citizens to have more rights and freedom of movement than other citizens, across the globe.
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Old Jul 5, 21, 3:17 pm
  #1493  
 
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Originally Posted by Owenc View Post
Stopping tourism is not acceptable. There is no justification for it anymore. It is now elevating American citizens to have more rights and freedom of movement than other citizens, across the globe.
Could not be more agree.
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Old Jul 5, 21, 3:28 pm
  #1494  
 
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Originally Posted by GUWonder View Post
White House staff is transitioning back to in-office work as of tomorrow morning. That should in some ways act as a sign of things moving forward to a further reopening by the US federal government. Eventually that will be followed by opening up to more travel abroad. But with US hotel rates at close to 100% of 2019 levels — and that is even despite big city business destination hotels at around 15-20% below 2019 levels — and domestic airfare as high as it is, any surge in foreigners’ visits to the US will drive up those room rates, airfares and car rental rates even more up into the stratosphere.
From my albeit limited view of road tripping around the US this June, I do wonder if that by the time the restrictions are relaxed if there will be some remedy to the worker shortages in the service industry. I had not really understood the level of staffing difficulty among restaurants and hotels. Sure hope that gets sorted out in the coming weeks.
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Old Jul 5, 21, 10:30 pm
  #1495  
 
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Originally Posted by Panos17 View Post
This article was posted by a major news source in the United States, not by some random group. When there's smoke, there's fire.
The article contained nothing indicating that any movement in this regard is likely. Nobody of any importance/influence within the US government said (even anonymously) anything that contradicts the present administration position. There may be fire somewhere, but it's more of a slow burn than a flaming conflagration. And even if there is fire, that fire isn't where it needs to be to get this resolved (probably the White House).
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Old Jul 5, 21, 11:38 pm
  #1496  
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With a further Canadian reopening to travel from the US around or after July 21st, and with a possible announcement of a US reopening to Canada to follow around or after July 21st, the US gets closer to reopening to travel from Europe.
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Old Jul 6, 21, 12:20 am
  #1497  
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I hope the travel ban for EU travelers to the US gets dropped soon. However the US ban is pretty 'easy to circumvent' - all you need is to go to a third country for 14 days. 14 days in Turkey or Mexico aren't so bad. The EU bans are/were much harsher and not so easy to overcome.
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Old Jul 6, 21, 12:22 am
  #1498  
 
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There is no EU ban. Americans can come now and actually weren’t banned in the U.K.
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Old Jul 6, 21, 12:41 am
  #1499  
 
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Originally Posted by DL77 View Post
Sure, sure. But we are not just talking about tourism, this unmotivated madness is also blocking work visas holders, investors and tax payers. Stop tourism is ok but the rest is unacceptable.
Nobody cares about foreigners here.
I hold "the highest possible rank" employment visa (O1A -- extraordinary abilities), which means that the fact that I am qualified to do the job the American applicants cannot (and hence I am not competing at the "normal" job market) is certified by the Department of Labor -- I still cannot travel with it -- they request the stupid NIE every time and the embassies in Europe/UK are extremely unresponsive and slow. Moreover, I work for the US government -- even this does not help. I don't know -- maybe I should contact the lawyers at my workplace (we have a plenty of them in the DC office and they all do nothing most of the time) and sue the government?
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Old Jul 6, 21, 1:24 am
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Originally Posted by DL77 View Post
Sure, sure. But we are not just talking about tourism, this unmotivated madness is also blocking work visas holders, investors and tax payers. Stop tourism is ok but the rest is unacceptable.
I think a big learning from covid is investing (money, relationships, work etc) in the US (and other countries) is not a good idea if you don't have US nationality. I live in a different country than my nationality, and while I've been treated much better I can now see the risks it brings.
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