As of this Monday, November 8, the restrictions to access the United States from certain countries will end. The nation will allow the entry of international travelers, but they must have their complete vaccination schedule, with some exceptions.
More than a year and a half after the United States’ borders closed to international travelers from Brazil, China, India, South Africa, the United Kingdom and much of Europe, policies are changing as the spread of the Covid virus slows. -19. From November 8, passengers who have their complete vaccination schedule will be able to enter that country.
Land borders were also reopened for people wishing to enter from Canada and Mexico. The measure for border crossing by this means will apply to people traveling for non-essential reasons such as family or tourism. However, the rule will change for January 2022 when the vaccination requirement applies to all visitors entering by land regardless of their reason for entry.
All vaccines approved by the World Health Organization (WHO) will be accepted by the US authorities: AstraZeneca, Johnson & Johnson, Moderna, Pfizer / BioNTech, Indian Covaxin, Sinopharm and Sinovac. Although the WHO is reviewing Sputnik V, the Russian vaccine is currently not allowed, although its application is authorized in 70 countries.
The reunions of family and friends will return
With the travel ban imposed by Donald Trump in early 2020 and then continued by his successor, Joe Biden, hundreds of families, friends and business partners were separated.
“It has been very hard … I just want to see my son,” Alison Henry, a 63-year-old British woman who will fly home to New York on Monday, told AFP.
As a protection measure against the virus, the United States closed its doors to travelers from China in February 2020. Then, on March 13, restrictions were designed for several European countries and a few days later the United Kingdom and Ireland followed. time the land borders with Mexico and Canada were closed.
Many families on both sides of the Atlantic eagerly await the reunion and although since last summer it was possible to travel from the United States to Europe, foreigners who were on American soil with certain visas had no guarantees of being able to return to their country.
To cope with the influx of travel, airlines have increased the number of transatlantic flights, incorporating larger aircraft, as the lifting of restrictions also represents a relief for the tourism sector that has been mired in an economic crisis by the restrictions during the Covid-19 pandemic.
Along the long Mexican border, many American cities in Texas and California have suffered financially from travel restrictions.
“The pandemic has affected the whole world and we are just hoping that our people can come visit us as well,” Marcos Rivera, owner of a clothing store in El Paso, Texas, told AFP.
However, although several European countries were pressuring the United States to relax its measures and thus reactivate the economy of related businesses on both continents, at least 30 countries have expressed concern about the lifting of the travel ban.
In 2019, before the pandemic, about a fifth of the roughly 79 million visitors to the United States came from Europe.
What are the travel restrictions?
Entry to the United States will not be totally free and the US authorities are preparing to control the vaccination status of travelers, the closest network of contacts and the carrying of negative Covid-19 tests.
All adult travelers must be fully vaccinated before boarding their flight and will have to present a negative Covid-19 test from the last 72 hours. Children under 18 years of age will not be required to receive the vaccine, but a negative test for the virus will be required, and for children 2 years and under there will be no requirement at the time of taking their flight.
With the crisis of the distribution of vaccines in the poorest countries, the Government of Joe Biden affirmed that it will allow the entry to the country of unvaccinated international visitors “if there is a humanitarian or emergency reason”. To do this, it has created a list of about 50 countries where only 10% of the population has been vaccinated.
Biden also explained that these exceptions will apply “extremely narrowly” and will require approval from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.