gudugan

I'll make an assumption

• Person is a Chinese citizen with a visa to enter the US and is not a permanent resident of the US

Option 1 (they have a visa for Canada)

• Fly to Canada
• Canada gives vaccines to everyone including noncitizens https://www.canada.ca/en/public-heal...inated.html#a2
• Get J&J vaccine (or others if you have more time)
• Wait 2 weeks
• Fly to the USA (with test) or cross land border (without test)

Option 2 (no Canada visa)

• A US visa can be substituted for several other countries such as Bulgaria, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Honduras, Mexico, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Panama, Peru, or Uruguay.
• Figure out if one of these countries vaccinates tourists.
• Repeat steps in Option 1
• This may also be possible if they qualify under the Come2hk/Return2hk quarantine exemption for Hong Kong

​​​​​​​No test just vaccine over land

GUWonder

For UK to US flights too, some have used the (Danish-issued) EU Digital Covid-19 Recovery Certificate to meet the US “testing” requirement. I assume the airlines at UK airports at least are more familiar with the local/UK equivalent than with the EU equivalent, so if you have something like that it would presumably meet the US requirement.

boybi

I am going to fly to ORD in the next few days, my first flight will leave around 20:20. Most testing centers won't open until 08:00. so I only have a 12hr window to get tested and receive the result before I can fly if I will be tested using RT-PCR. I am from the Philippines, I am not sure if there are antigen tests available here that is accepted for travel to the US.

Smiley90

You actually have a 24+12 hour window, since you can get tested the day before, not the day of.

MaxVO

The Wiki post for this thread lists all the acceptable antigen tests.

boybi

Please clarify, if my flight will be on Thursday 20:00, I can get tested on Wednesday morning? (The testing center near my place is only open for covid testing from 8-10AM).

friedablass

Yes you can get tested any time from 12:00 a.m. Wednesday. As long as your test is dated 1 calendar day before your flight, it's fine. It doesn't have to be within 24 hours.

swampwiz

I (USA citizen) will be going WAW-MSY (KLM is the first leg, will not be leaving airport) on Apr 13. I have a BINAX test with me, as presumably I was to take that a day before (I have no idea how I am supposed to use that to generate the proper documentation to get me on the flight), I have had the 3 Moderna shots, and have the CDC card attesting to that.

What will I need to do? KLM's website seems to say that all I need is my vaccination card.

EDIT: Since I was present in Russia on Feb 28, 2022, it looks like the test requirement is waived.

https://www.cdc.gov/quarantine/fr-pr...tive-test.html

I wonder how I should proactively ensure that I won't have any hassles from the check-in agent. Perhaps I could go a day early to the airport and talk to the KLM check-in desk just to make sure that they know this rule.

I am trying to do Messenger with a human at KLM, but it looks like it might be a while. Is there an E-mail address I could use to converse with someone at KLM?

GUWonder

Try using this to see how it should go for you meeting the requirements:

https://www.cdc.gov/quarantine/pdf/A...ing_UPDATE.pdf

swampwiz

This seems to only be for non-citizens.

EDIT: There is a link in that document to this document, that seems to say that all that is required is an attestation to being fully vaccinated (which in my case is documented by my CDC card):

https://www.cdc.gov/quarantine/pdf/N...ec2021_508.pdf

swampwiz

OK, I've talked with a very unknowledgeable KLM agent (the kind that has the rooster cawing in the background); all she did was read off from the website, which I did as well, but it still is not clear to me - or at least as clear as needed that I would expect the gatekeeper agent to fully be able to figure out, which is the most important link in this whole situation.

Does anyone know of a good E-mail address that way I can get my question answered, and also if the gatekeeper doesn't perform properly, I could tell xer to call XXX at KLM.

downinit

Even if you can reach XXX at KLM right now, that will not do you any good when you are unable to reach them again at the airport (which you almost certainly will not be able to). Plus the office staff handling the customer service is usually completely disconnected from the gate staff, and they will have completely different responsibilities and protocols to follow. The airport staff will be infinitely more well-versed on the matters that they deal with every day, including your situation, and they will not really care what someone on the phone told you. Your safest bet would be to head to the airport early and speak with the people who will be making the decision. But even then, the people at the airport today may not be the people there tomorrow, so early means same day as the flight. If I were you, I would just take the test as early as possible and be done with it (BinaxNow will give you a digital cert that you can provide to the airline). This is a lot of trouble to try and exploit a technicality that really has nothing to do with your situation, especially given that you already have the test in your possession.

Daedalus7

I was surprised that the CDC lowered the risk category for cruises today. I am somewhat hopeful that this portends a similar change wrt testing, but who knows. I would hope that we would have an announcement one way or another by the end of next week (or maybe Monday the 11th) given that more than a week's notice was given before the last extension.

nldogbert

Hi,
Just wanted to report back my experience with the HALO/LAMP test - both me and my travel companion did this test and we will NEVER do this again. Main reason was the sensitivity of the test. Mine was fine, but my travel companion's sample was rejected. We followed the rules of not eating/drinking 30 mins before testing.
In the end, luckily we managed to get a slot for the usual Rapid Antigen test at T3 the next morning before our 11am flight.

All in all, really do not see the difference between this LAMP test and the Rapid Antigen test (offered by HALO) - yes I understand LAMP is sent to a lab, but during the sample taking, there's no supervision, so how is that even in a controlled environment. They can also just offer the Rapid Antigen test with the person on duty supervising the test and therefore making it valid.
Wasted the $$ for this LAMP/NAAT test.

Cheers!

LETTERBOY

This is a good point, and something I thought of when I saw it. Other things I've noticed that could portend positive news on this front are: 1) the Senate voted on a (somewhat) bipartisan basis to end the mask mandate. This will never come to a vote in the House, Biden would veto it if it passed, and this will likely end before the legislative process completed, but it does increase the political pressure on the White House to drop it; 2) There have been numerous articles the past couple of days about the White House dropping the Title 42 immigration restrictions (allowing illegal immigrants to be expelled quickly at the southern border under the public health emergency). I think it would be difficult for the administration to justify keeping the international testing rule if these rules were dropped; 3) Fauci emerged from hiding to give an interview that contained two interesting tidbits. First, he said that we could be at the end of the emergency. Second, he said he was thinking about retiring. IMO, all of these point to the international testing rule (and the mask mandate, for those who are interested in that) being ended fairly soon.