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

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Old Sep 15, 2021, 1:47 pm
FlyerTalk Forums Expert How-Tos and Guides
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)

 
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Old Nov 11, 2021, 6:43 am
  #2791  
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Originally Posted by mmxbreaks
Good to know about this option. I live nearer to Gatwick so can drive there and back two days before my Heathrow flight. For £35 seems pretty convenient in general.

Shame there's nothing at LHR T5 as I need to do a PCR test turnaround with a mere 48hr window between returning from USA (landing T5) and onward holiday afterwards.
I have had good luck with ExpressTest in T5 with 24 hour turnaround for Day 2 test before it became lateral flow.
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Old Nov 11, 2021, 10:56 am
  #2792  
 
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Originally Posted by mmxbreaks
Good to know about this option. I live nearer to Gatwick so can drive there and back two days before my Heathrow flight. For £35 seems pretty convenient in general.

Shame there's nothing at LHR T5 as I need to do a PCR test turnaround with a mere 48hr window between returning from USA (landing T5) and onward holiday afterwards.
there was a sign for testing at T5 so I think there is - not sure where though.

Originally Posted by casey89
Nice.

I also came across this little sentence:

https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019...travelers.html

I know airlines are responsible to collect this attestation but am I required to print and fill this form before check-in? :/ I travel with BA and the only new thing I found was this - https://take.ms/bOsGp - at the end of the API for each passengers. Is that what they call as the "attestation" and no other things is required related to this?
we flew with American not BA, however we completed the attestation in the VeriFLY app and then weren’t asked for it again.

just landed in New York. Only flight in the terminal so it was empty, got to CBP first and within 30mins of wheels down we were out of the terminal! All they checked at CBP was our passports and the usual “why are you here, how long for” questions.

Last edited by NewbieRunner; Nov 13, 2021 at 3:14 pm Reason: Merge consecutive posts by same member
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Old Nov 11, 2021, 3:04 pm
  #2793  
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Originally Posted by casey89
I know airlines are responsible to collect this attestation but am I required to print and fill this form before check-in? :/ I travel with BA and the only new thing I found was this - https://take.ms/bOsGp - at the end of the API for each passengers. Is that what they call as the "attestation" and no other things is required related to this?
The clickable PDF version is here, just fill it in, sign it (not using Adoble DIgital Signature, just use the drawn signature), then Print to PDF. Submit to VeriFLY, or print out and show at check-in.

https://www.cdc.gov/quarantine/pdf/N...sclose-508.pdf
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Old Nov 12, 2021, 2:36 pm
  #2794  
 
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I've looked at the attestation form but am unsure what Section 2 relates to.

I'm travelling in 2 weeks to Orlando, I'm fully vaccinated and have booked a lateral flow test at LHR the day before the flight.

Will I need to complete just point 1 of Section 1 and leave the rest blank?

My vaccination status is already uploaded to Verifly, the test result and attestation will be uploaded once I have the test result (assuming I can get the fillable form to work - no luck so far on my iphone).
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Old Nov 12, 2021, 3:26 pm
  #2795  
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Originally Posted by buzzrm
I've looked at the attestation form but am unsure what Section 2 relates to.

I'm travelling in 2 weeks to Orlando, I'm fully vaccinated and have booked a lateral flow test at LHR the day before the flight.

Will I need to complete just point 1 of Section 1 and leave the rest blank?

My vaccination status is already uploaded to Verifly, the test result and attestation will be uploaded once I have the test result (assuming I can get the fillable form to work - no luck so far on my iphone).
Section 1 asks if you have had a test, you normally answer the first question only.
Section 2 asks if you have had the vaccines, you normally answer the first question only. As directed, you also need to sign the end of the attestation.
I think the blue wording under the section headers explains what is going on.
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Old Nov 12, 2021, 5:05 pm
  #2796  
 
Join Date: Dec 2008
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Thanks CWS. Point 1 in both Sections start with "I attest that I am fully vaccinated...", I think the wording could have been clearer (bolding aside).

Looking forward to finally flying again!
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Old Nov 13, 2021, 6:51 am
  #2797  
 
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Originally Posted by casey89
I know airlines are responsible to collect this attestation but am I required to print and fill this form before check-in?
I had mine in digital form, but it was not accepted - had to fill and sign paper version twice on my way in to SFO.
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Old Nov 13, 2021, 4:19 pm
  #2798  
 
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Originally Posted by corporate-wage-slave
The clickable PDF version is here, just fill it in, sign it (not using Adoble DIgital Signature, just use the drawn signature), then Print to PDF. Submit to VeriFLY, or print out and show at check-in
Great, thank you for the advice. I know you will hate me soon for those kind of questions, but if I understand it right and based on all other replies - as long as I am fully vaccinated and will have negative result I will just fill the first questions in both Sections, fill my name/date and sign it and thats it right?

Originally Posted by invisible
I had mine in digital form, but it was not accepted - had to fill and sign paper version twice on my way in to SFO.
So you had in the VeriFly app (or similar) but during check-in it was declined by the airline so they provided you paper version of the same form and you were able to fill it during check in?
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Old Nov 13, 2021, 4:29 pm
  #2799  
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Originally Posted by casey89
Great, thank you for the advice. I know you will hate me soon for those kind of questions, but if I understand it right and based on all other replies - as long as I am fully vaccinated and will have negative result I will just fill the first questions in both Sections, fill my name/date and sign it and thats it right?
Yes. See post 2793.
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Old Nov 14, 2021, 1:44 am
  #2800  
 
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Originally Posted by casey89
Great, thank you for the advice. I know you will hate me soon for those kind of questions, but if I understand it right and based on all other replies - as long as I am fully vaccinated and will have negative result I will just fill the first questions in both Sections, fill my name/date and sign it and thats it right?
It seems to me you should also fill Section 2 - Point 5
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Old Nov 14, 2021, 2:30 am
  #2801  
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Originally Posted by SpinEcho
It seems to me you should also fill Section 2 - Point 5
I don't think you do, but it would be good to have another set of eyes on this. The reason for Point 5 is that if staying more than 60 days you commit to getting the vaccine, as judged by the follow-up questions below Point 5. But if vaccinated already this is spurious (this form is checking health matters, not immigration rules) - you can't them commit to the followup questions if already vaccinated. If you have clicked Point 1 it says that signing the form then completes the attestation. To argue against this, the click selection does allow people to tick points 1 and 5, whereas other combinations are stopped, and it doesn't do any harm if leaving before 60 days.
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Old Nov 14, 2021, 3:13 am
  #2802  
 
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Sorry just checking, if my flight is on Saturday at 1pm, just so i'm reading the 'within 3 calendar days of your departure date'. This would mean i can take the test on Wednesday or after. Reading rules over and over tends to make me doubt myself :/
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Old Nov 14, 2021, 3:23 am
  #2803  
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Stop reading them.
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Old Nov 14, 2021, 4:39 am
  #2804  
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Originally Posted by pc32435
Sorry just checking, if my flight is on Saturday at 1pm, just so i'm reading the 'within 3 calendar days of your departure date'. This would mean i can take the test on Wednesday or after. Reading rules over and over tends to make me doubt myself :/
It is probably best to get this correct, but yes, you need to take the test any time on Wednesday - including early in the morning - or thereafter, for a Saturday flight.

The way I rationalise it is
Time of departure flights - then minus 72 hours = potential test date and time. Then forget the time, it can be any time on that day.

So
Saturday 21 November 13:00 hrs local departure time - then minus 72 hours = Wednesday 17 November 13:00 hrs. Then forget the 13:00 - it can be any time on Wednesday.
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Old Nov 17, 2021, 5:16 pm
  #2805  
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Originally Posted by Laniselick
My husband and I are both double vaxxed with different first and second doses - one of which is AstraZenica. What is US policy on flying to US?
You should be ok

Last edited by NWIFlyer; Nov 17, 2021 at 10:59 pm Reason: Add quote for traceability following thread merge.
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