BREAKING NEWS!

On October 25, 2021, the Biden Administration published a fact sheet on the White House website detailing the implementation of its new international air travel policy requiring foreign national travelers to the United States to be fully vaccinated. This new policy will replace current Presidential Proclamations restricting travel from certain countries/areas. Beginning on November 8th, all nonimmigrant foreign national travelers, with few exceptions, must be fully vaccinated against COVID-19 and provide proof of vaccination to fly to the United States. U.S. Citizens, lawful permanent residents, and certain nonimmigrant foreign nationals are exempt from the vaccination requirement but must take a COVID-19 test within one day of departure.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) considers a person to be fully vaccinated 2 weeks after their second dose in a 2-dose series, such as the Pfizer-BioNTech or Moderna vaccines; or 2 weeks after a single-dose vaccine, such as Johnson & Johnson’s Janssen vaccine. The CDC states that “This guidance applies to COVID-19 vaccines currently approved or authorized for emergency use by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (Pfizer-BioNTech, Moderna, and Johnson & Johnson [J&J]/Janssen COVID-19 vaccines) and can be applied to COVID-19 vaccines that have been listed for emergency use by the World Health Organization (such as AstraZeneca/Oxford).” The U.S. will not accept all COVID-19 vaccines. Please refer to the WHO for a list of approved COVID-19 vaccines prior to traveling to the United States.

Children under the age of 18 are exempt from the COVID-19 vaccination requirement, but unvaccinated children between the ages of 2 and 17 are required to take a COVID-19 test prior to departure. Unvaccinated children travelling with a fully vaccinated adult can take a test within 3 days of departure, but unvaccinated children traveling alone or with an unvaccinated adult will have to take a COVID test within one day of departure.

Only a limited number of foreign nationals will be exempt from the vaccination requirement, including children under 18, certain COVID-19 vaccine clinical trial participants, people with certain medical conditions, emergency or humanitarian travel, and other very narrow categories. Foreign nationals who receive a vaccine exemption to fly to the U.S. may be required to get vaccinated in the U.S. if they stay for more than 60 days or to make other public health attestations.

In addition, the CDC will be issuing a Contact Tracing Order requiring all airlines flying to the United States to provide passenger contact information to the CDC in the event that passengers need to be notified about potential COVID-19 exposure on a flight to the U.S.

Although travel from certain countries/regions will no longer be restricted, appointment backlogs at U.S. embassies and consulates continue to be an issue for foreign nationals who need visas. Any international travel that will require a visa to return to the U.S. should be carefully considered.

Please contact Iandoli, Desai & Cronin P.C. if you have questions about international travel or the new U.S. air travel policy.