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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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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 8, 21, 10:11 am
  #1561  
 
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Originally Posted by LETTERBOY
To many Americans, that's basically the same thing as a ban. Most of us only get 2 weeks vacation a year, who's going to spend it all inside a a hotel room?
Likewise - who is going to waste two weeks on holiday in a 3rd country they don't actually want to go to get to the country they do want to go to? I'm not defending quarantine, but it's still easier than what the US inflicts on foreigners.
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Old Jul 8, 21, 11:35 am
  #1562  
 
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so much for the Biden admin using data and science. What a joke. Even if a vaccinated person 100% of the time passed along covid to anyone near them which obviously won’t happen you’re still looking at a tiny percentage with how much the vaccines reduce your chance of infection. Pretty sure the CDC knows that data is leaning toward at a minimum greatly reduced chance of spreading covid if vaccinated or they never would’ve said those who are vaccinated can drop masks.

Require a test and proof of vaccination for a while for all I care. But there is 0 logic in the current policy. They’re so worried about optics if cases start to increase, which, big surprise, they will in the fall like every other repository disease with the mostly unvaccinated.
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Old Jul 8, 21, 11:55 am
  #1563  
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Originally Posted by Donsyb
Likewise - who is going to waste two weeks on holiday in a 3rd country they don't actually want to go to get to the country they do want to go to? I'm not defending quarantine, but it's still easier than what the US inflicts on foreigners.
we have a 3-week vacation booked with friends in the US SW-area. September. 1st time for our friends to the US. We still hope to go, but if we can‘t, my wife and I are seriously considering 15 days Cancun followed by 1 week US. We had to cancel 4 planned trips to the US since March 2020 and are longing to return…
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Old Jul 8, 21, 11:58 am
  #1564  
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ridiculous answer. The safe countries like Switzerland and others are restricted from entering, but the unsafe countries are wide open. Nonsense article respectively silly words from the spokesperson.
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Old Jul 8, 21, 5:46 pm
  #1565  
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As a US visa holder/non-green card holder, the thing that sucks the most is that I'm not allowed to leave the US despite being vaccinated, for fear of not being allowed to return and lose my job. I hope I can at least visit family for Christmas...
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Old Jul 15, 21, 6:26 pm
  #1566  
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Biden promises answers on European travel ban 'in the next several days' [CNN]

Here's the source from CNN:

https://www.cnn.com/2021/07/15/polit...den/index.html

It says:President Joe Biden said Thursday he'll soon be able to answer persistent questions about travel to the US from Europe after German Chancellor Angela Merkel raised the matter in the Oval Office.
Biden said he brought in members of his Covid team when Merkel raised the question during their bilateral talks at a White House meeting on Thursday.
"It's in process now," Biden said, adding he'd be "able to answer that question ... in the next several days."
While Europe eased restrictions for American travelers last month, the US has maintained strict travel restrictions put in place under former President Donald Trump. Officials have said the spread of the Delta variant has put a hold on reopening the country to Europe.Merkel said she'd received similar assurances from Biden in their meeting that he was looking into the matter.

Perhaps we are now close to the USA taking a more reasonable position in relation to travel from Europe and the UK?
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Old Jul 15, 21, 6:29 pm
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I think what they'll do is outline a process for opening to the EU, but the actual opening won't be anytime soon. Not with EU countries in a wave of soft lockdowns.
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Old Jul 15, 21, 7:27 pm
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CNN omitted the reporter's (apparentlyJuliane Schäuble from “Der Tagesspiegel”) question that prompted that response but it's very well stated and to the point (about 31 minute mark):


My question touches an issue that worries a lot of people in the US and in Germany. Can you explain to us why there still is a travel ban for people coming from Germany or other states of the European Union? Why people from Turkey, where the number of new cases are 7 times high[er], can come?You have repeatedly said that you're following the scientific data — what is the main argument for not lifting that travel ban for the Schengen region?
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Old Jul 15, 21, 10:34 pm
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Originally Posted by lobo411
I think what they'll do is outline a process for opening to the EU, but the actual opening won't be anytime soon. Not with EU countries in a wave of soft lockdowns.
There won't be a process in place. There is not a process in place for many non-Schengen countries where Covid numbers are much higher, so why would Schengen be subject to more scrutiny?

Unless, of course, they revamp the entire rules to put every country under scrutiny, but that would be an upheaval and cause chaos, particularly for Latin America.
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Old Jul 15, 21, 11:07 pm
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Promising, I guess, but at this point I'll believe it when I see it.
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Old Jul 16, 21, 1:41 am
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Good job from that journalist not only asking the question, but also giving an example of the absurdity of the situation. Keep the pressure on it, guys!
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Old Jul 16, 21, 2:09 am
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He said:
"We brought in the head of our Covid team, because the chancellor [Merkel] brought that subject up,” and
“It’s in the process of [seeing] how soon we can lift the ban".

There's tremendous pressure from industry groups on especially the German government to intervene with the US government about lifting the de-facto travel ban.
Good thing Merkel did there.
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Old Jul 16, 21, 3:35 am
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Originally Posted by 84fiero
CNN omitted the reporter's (apparentlyJuliane Schäuble from “Der Tagesspiegel”) question that prompted that response but it's very well stated and to the point (about 31 minute mark):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GdbIami__wg


Hope they don't make it worse and just add Turkey to the travel ban. Done, easy fix
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Old Jul 16, 21, 4:57 am
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I should imagine that there is strong pressure from businesses in the USA and in the banned countries to permit travel by staff between offices. This will intensify as face to face meetings become more common - and the ban will become seen as something that really hinders business. I don't think that there will be much political pressure to reopen tourism. And there are not enough people with families split across continents (and who aren't otherwise exempt) to make a strong constituency. However, unlike the UK which likes to make detailed and extensive rules, and then not enforce them, the US tends to take a more pragmatic approach. If my analysis is correct, I should think that the US won't just exempt business travel (since how do you precisely define and enforce that?), but instead make the obstacles too high for casual tourists to overcome but not so high as to stop important business.

But, who knows? If it's on the political agenda, there will be a process and I'm confident that the process will result in a conclusion of, at least, some opening.
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Old Jul 16, 21, 5:33 am
  #1575  
 
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I try not to be uber pessimistic, but.

Given the rapidly rising rates of Covid infection due to the Delta variant both here in the US and abroad and

Given the limited vaccination rates in multiple countries and...

Given the schizophrenic approach in dealing with the pandemic that some of our government administrators have adopted in regards to the science of Covid infection,

All I see is delays and obfuscation on getting us reopened as far as travel is concerned without ridiculous restrictions and testing requirements for anyone, no matter what their vaccination status

I certainly hope I am 100% wrong
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