Vaccinated Europeans will be able to travel to the United States from November 8

Published on : 10/15/2021 – 16:54

Expatriates and European tourists have been waiting for this for a year and a half. The United States will lift on November 8, for people vaccinated, the restrictions in place since March 2020 on international travel, the maintenance of which annoyed many of its partners.

“The new US travel policy, which requires vaccination for foreign travelers to the United States, will come into effect on November 8,” the White House announced Friday, October 15, in a statement specifying the date of this. lifting, which had already been announced last month.

This new system will apply to travelers arriving by air as well as to those crossing the land borders with Canada and Mexico.

Faced with the pandemic, the United States had closed its borders from March 2020 for millions of travelers coming in particular from the European Union, the United Kingdom or China, then later from India or Brazil. They had also closed their land entry points to visitors from Canada and Mexico.

This could have caused painful personal situations and economic damage.

Mandatory negative test

For travelers arriving by air, the United States will require, in addition to proof of vaccination and a test within three days before departure, the establishment by airlines of a system for tracking contacts.

For the land route, the White House announced this week that the lifting of restrictions would be done in two stages.

From November 8, people coming for reasons deemed non-essential, for example family or tourism, will be able to cross the border of Canada or Mexico, provided they are vaccinated. People coming for compelling reasons – for example truck drivers – will be exempt.

But from January, the vaccine obligation will apply to all visitors crossing land borders, regardless of their reason for entering the United States.

US health authorities have also indicated that all vaccines approved by the World Health Organization would be accepted.

For now, according to the emergency procedure put in place by the WHO, the vaccines AstraZeneca, Johnson & Johnson, Moderna, Pfizer / BioNTech, Sinopharm and Sinovac.

Very strict in closing borders, the United States has never implemented a vaccination obligation for domestic flights. And even the Biden administration, which has recently resigned itself to taking some binding measures, has not taken the plunge, knowing the politically hot topic.

With AFP