Traveling abroad? You’ll want to know about these changes. Also, when can foreigners visit the U.S., and is there a possibility of domestic air vaccination requirement?
On September 20, the Biden Administration announced changes for both Americans returning from a foreign countries as well as when and how foreign travelers can visit the U.S. We will start with changes made for U.S. citizens returning home.
The U.S. is increasing the standards unvaccinated citizens must meet to fly home. They are now requiring that pre-flight covid testing be conducted within 24 hours, instead of the current 72 hour window. The unvaccinated traveler will also be required to take an approved covid test within 24 hours after arriving in the U.S. Testing still applies for children between the ages of 2 and older. At this time it looks like vaccinated travelers will have 72 hours to test before their flight, with no testing once returned. The 14 day mandatory quarantine is still in effect for any positive test regardless of vaccination status. For those that may not be aware of this requirement, it requires that any citizen over the age of 2 be tested before returning by air to the us. If you test positive for covid you will be forced to quarantine in whatever country you are in for 14 days as your expense before being allowed to board a flight home. Now there are insurances that can cover you for this kind of unforeseen situation, if you’d like to know more contact us or your Travel Advisor.
Airlines will also be required to gather contact information for contact tracing, as well as for the followup test by unvaccinated travelers. So it looks like enforcement both to board, as well as once home will fall on the airlines.
Now for the good news, fully vaccinated foreigners will soon be allowed to visit the U.S. This comes after 18 months of the united states turning away non-essential visitors from abroad. This is good news for families that have been separated during covid, and for the struggling travel and hospitality industries.
For a foreigner to visit they must be fully vaccinated and have a negative covid test taken within 72 hours of boarding the flight. Similar to vaccinated American travelers returning home.
Foreigners should be able to visit starting in early November. A date allowing for land crossings from Canada or Mexico is currently unknown, the administration has extended the ban of overland foreign traffic to late October. Hopefully there will be more clarity in the coming weeks.
There are some unknowns right now for foreigners visiting. We don’t yet know what vaccines the U.S. will accept. The United Kingdom for example primarily uses the AstraZeneca, which is not approved in the U.S. China and Russia both have their own vaccines also not approved in the U.S. We are waiting to see if only vaccines approved in the U.S. are accepted, or if others will be allowed and if so which ones.
We also don’t yet know if there is an exception for age, since children under 12 usually have’t qualified for the vaccine in most countries.
Since the rules have become more strict for unvaccinated Americans wanting to return home, the question many are asking is will there be a vaccine mandate to fly domestically. Especially with Dr. Fauci’s recent interview on Meet the Press over the weekend. Currently there is no such mandate, but the subject is coming up more frequently.
Many In the travel industry don’t believe a vaccine mandate for domestic Air Travel will happen. However there is a lot of uncertainty, especially if you consider the recent employer mandates on private sector business put forth by the current administration. Right now unvaccinated travelers can fly domestically and there are no current plans that have been announced to required airlines to limit domestic air travel to only vaccinated travelers. Unfortunately these questions will persist until the administration comes out and definitively says yes or no to mandates on domestic air travel.
