The United States will be reopening its borders to fully vaccinated visitors on Nov. 8, according to a White House official who said the Biden administration would be announcing a new travel policy later today to allow vaccinated foreign nationals to resume travel to the U.S. by both land and air.
“This announcement and date applies to both international air travel and travel across the Southwest and Northern land borders with Mexico and Canada,” a White House official said via email. “This puts in place a global international travel policy that is guided by public health, stringent, and consistent.”
Today’s news confirms Nov. 8 as the reopening date, following President Biden announcing the end to an 18-month travel ban on foreign visitors to the U.S. sometime in “early November.” In addition to proof of vaccination, travelers will still be required to show results of a negative COVID-19 test taken within three days of traveling to the U.S.
The soon-to-be-announced policy will also require travelers entering the U.S. via land borders in Canada or Mexico for non-essential travel to be fully vaccinated, including those visiting family, friends or tourists.
“These travelers are required to be prepared to attest to vaccination status and to present proof of vaccination to a CBP officer upon request,” the White House official said. “Fully vaccinated travelers will continue to be required to show a pre-departure negative test taken within three days of travel prior to boarding.”
Those crossing land borders for all travel, essential and non, must be fully vaccinated by January.
“By January, foreign nationals traveling across the land border for both essential and non-essential reasons will be required to be fully vaccinated.”
There will be “very limited exceptions to these vaccination requirements” and more details regarding acceptable proof of vaccinations are still to come from the CDC and federal government, though the White House did confirm that all FDA approved and authorized vaccines in addition to those that have an Emergency Use Listing (EUL) from the WHO will be accepted for air travel.
“We anticipate the same will be true at the land border,” they said.
