The United States has finally removed its 20-months-old strict COVID-19 travel restrictions for international flyers. The country is all set to reopen its borders for overseas fully-vaccinated-only travellers. Though the travel restrictions have been lifted in most regions, some local restrictions still persist in the cities such as Hawaii, New Mexico, Oregon and Washington. All these places still have a facemask rule. On the other hand, cities like San Francisco and New York have a vaccine mandate for indoor public areas.
Here are some important guidelines that you must know before planning a trip to America:
1) As of now, children aged 18 years or below are exempted from vaccination requirements.
2) Apart from being fully vaccinated, passengers will still have to carry a negative RT PCR test report not older than 72 hours.
3) Before allowing people to board, the airlines will have to verify all paper and digital documents proving the vaccination status of passengers.
4) If an airline fails to verify passenger’s info, it could face fines of up to nearly $35000 per violation.
5) The documents can be processed at the mobile apps of the airlines as well.
6) Before booking tickets, passengers need to go through CDC criteria for being fully vaccinated.
7) Regardless of their nationality, testing is required for all fully-vaccinated air travellers.
8) A limited number of unvaccinated international travellers exempted from vaccination requirements will have to test within a day of departing or take US Custom and Border Protection (CBP test).
9) Customs and Border Protection agents will check vaccine proof of incoming land passengers.
10) Travellers need to attest the reason for their travel and be ready to show proof of being fully vaccinated.
11) The US is accepting AstraZeneca, Moderna, Johnson & Johnson, Covaxin, Pfizer/BioNTech, Sinovac and Sinopharm vaccines.
