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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 28, 2021, 9:08 am
  #2866  
 
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Originally Posted by jo535
That would make sense. Right now cases in several European countries, Israel, Australia, Egypt, Russia, Hong Kong etc. You would have to bar entry for several countries and at the same point, it’s already in the country.
Exactly. No way it isn’t in the US already unfortunately. It’s already likely everywhere.
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Old Nov 29, 2021, 12:25 am
  #2867  
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Originally Posted by SteveWhite88
I don’t expect the US to close again but I do think they’ll change the tests accepted for entry to full PCR tests and no longer accept Antigen tests. I bet that is confirmed in the coming days.
I suspect you are right and it would be a pain for us due to the lack of PCR testing locally. However I don’t think there is much scientific benefit from switching pre departure testing from LF to PCR. Whilst there is some difference in the the test accuracy, there isn’t much. The big benefit from PCR is being able to single out the new variant. You don’t care about this for pre departure since you just want positive people to not get on the plane. It’s only when they have landed in your country that you want to spot the new variant.

Based on this it wouldn’t surprise me if instead the US introduces arrival PCR testing.
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Old Nov 29, 2021, 12:45 am
  #2868  
 
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We're due to be heading to the US on Wednesday. Fully vaccinated and tested with a green Verifly but now on the verge of throwing in the towel because of the endless uncertainty.
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Old Nov 29, 2021, 1:22 am
  #2869  
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Originally Posted by DrGee
We're due to be heading to the US on Wednesday. Fully vaccinated and tested with a green Verifly but now on the verge of throwing in the towel because of the endless uncertainty.
I feel your pain. I'm due to go next Sunday. The only thing that encouraged me was that Reuters said this:

Biden told it will take two weeks to have definitive data on Omicron variant
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Old Nov 29, 2021, 1:24 am
  #2870  
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Based on this it wouldn’t surprise me if instead the US introduces arrival PCR testing.
But if a passenger has only a two hour connection at the US Point of Entry, how would PCR testing work then?
And what do you do in the time period between sample taking and the result?
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Old Nov 29, 2021, 1:51 am
  #2871  
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Originally Posted by DrGee
We're due to be heading to the US on Wednesday. Fully vaccinated and tested with a green Verifly but now on the verge of throwing in the towel because of the endless uncertainty.
The US will remain about as open to travel from Europe this coming Wednesday as was the case last Wednesday. The US Admin is hanging on what Pfizer shows to be the case with its current vaccines functioning vis-a-vis Omicron, and that’s from where this “two week” thing is coming.
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Old Nov 29, 2021, 3:02 am
  #2872  
 
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I think it’s a safe bet that vaccines will prevent serious illness and death. By blocking travel from Europe a few weeks after a long ban, the Biden administration will damage relations with the EU and airlines will once again take a hit. I don’t believe he sees that the benefits here outweigh the risks.

Besides, some European countries report no cases (yet), such as Sweden, Finland and countries outside the EU (Hong-Kong, Israel and Australia) have several cases. They would need to be banned too then. On top of that, two were found in Canada yesterday.
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Old Nov 29, 2021, 3:17 am
  #2873  
 
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will see later today
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Old Nov 29, 2021, 3:57 am
  #2874  
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Any idea on time? I couldn’t see anything on various websites of a schedule
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Old Nov 29, 2021, 4:03 am
  #2875  
 
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Originally Posted by jo535
I think it’s a safe bet that vaccines will prevent serious illness and death. By blocking travel from Europe a few weeks after a long ban, the Biden administration will damage relations with the EU and airlines will once again take a hit. I don’t believe he sees that the benefits here outweigh the risks.

Besides, some European countries report no cases (yet), such as Sweden, Finland and countries outside the EU (Hong-Kong, Israel and Australia) have several cases. They would need to be banned too then. On top of that, two were found in Canada yesterday.
I doubt Biden gives a damn about the relationship with the EU and airlines. New variants are big money makers for big pharma so we can expect them to continually discover new strains, and implement new restrictions, mandates, and other attacks on liberty so that they can earn bigger bucks.
I'm willing to bet there are already Omicron cases all over the world (well, maybe less likely in places like Japan, but there's no preventing it in the EU or the US as I'm certain it's already here) so all these bans, etc are asinine. The vaccines have been around for well over 6 months now, so just open the hell up and let's get on with life. Let the unvaxxed deal with the consequences of their choices. But enough with the never-ending covid hysteria. If I'm vaccinated I should be able to get on with life and not have to wear a mask everywhere or take invasive PCR tests to travel.
We won't eradicate covid so living in fear is no way to live at all.
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Old Nov 29, 2021, 5:28 am
  #2876  
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Let the unvaxxed deal with the consequences of their choices
The problem is that these unvaxxed people are clogging up the ICU capacities in Central Europe.
That is dangerous for vaxxed people in case they are waiting for cancer treatment or got a stroke or were involved in a serious accident.
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Old Nov 29, 2021, 6:47 am
  #2877  
 
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Dr Fauci on ABC news this morning
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Old Nov 29, 2021, 6:49 am
  #2878  
 
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Originally Posted by jo535
Dr Fauci on ABC news this morning
Perfect, thanks man! My Friday flight seems very promising at this moment.
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Old Nov 29, 2021, 6:57 am
  #2879  
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Thanks, just read the article on ABC news, encouraging that it doesn’t look like more travel restrictions are coming. Keeping fingers crossed
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Old Nov 29, 2021, 7:11 am
  #2880  
 
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White House Statement is at 11.45 AM ET according to whitehouse.gov/live

Travelling on Friday so crossing fingers for no major obstacles between now and then....
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