It's about time to end a travel ban that is no longer making any sense.
Instead, the United States is finally implementing a policy that prioritize visitors based on vaccination status, instead of location.
This includes visitors from previously barred places like China, Brazil and Iran.
The policy will affect travelers based more on vaccination status rather than nationality status.
Please note that these details have not finalized, and can change until the measures are fully implemented in early November, in roughly one month. The lag between the old and new measures are so airlines and transportation hubs have some time to prepare.
Currently, it looks like the point of difference is that the unvaccinated will have a shorter timeframe for a negative test and will be subject to one additional post-arrival COVID-19 test, in addition to following federal, state, and local quarantine laws at the time.
Here are the requirements depending on what bucket you fall in (vaccinated or unvaccinated, there is little differentiation between American national or foreign national).
If you are vaccinated:
- Pre-departure COVID-19 test within three days
- No quarantine mandates
Currently, the list of acceptable vaccines for entry are "FDA-approved or authorized and WHO Emergency Use Listing vaccines." This includes but is not limited to:1
- AstraZeneca
- Johnson & Johnson
- Moderna
- Pfizer-BioNTech
- Sinopharm
- Sinovac
If you are unvaccinated:
- Pre-departure COVID-19 test within one day
- Post-arrival COVID-19 test within a TBA timeframe
For quick reference, here is the CDC's current recommendations per April:
All in all, yay!
