The time has finally arrived: the United States reopens, Monday, November 8, its land and air borders to travelers vaccinated against Covid-19, after twenty months of restrictions particularly badly experienced in Europe or among neighbors Mexico and Canada. France is one of the countries affected by this lifting of travel restrictions.
Separated families, disrupted business relationships, thwarted professional ambitions: the “travel ban” imposed by Donald Trump at the beginning of 2020, then confirmed by his successor Joe Biden, has been widely criticized and has become emblematic of the upheavals caused by the pandemic .
To guard against the countries most affected by Covid-19, Donald Trump had imposed restrictions on travel from China in February 2020. Then on March 13, it was the turn of the European countries of the Schengen area. Great Britain and Ireland followed a few days later, while the land borders with Mexico and Canada were largely closed. With all these countries, the density of human and economic exchanges is immense.
“It was so hard”
Many families on both sides of the Atlantic are eagerly awaiting this reunion. It was certainly possible to go from the United States to Europe since last summer, but foreigners living on American soil and holding certain visas had no guarantee of being able to return home.
“It was so hard”, “I just want to see my son”, told Agence France-Presse (AFP) Alison Henry, a 63-year-old Briton who will fly on Monday to find him at his home in New York.
To cope with the influx of demands, airlines have increased the number of transatlantic flights. They will use bigger planes, because this lifting of restrictions also represents a breath of fresh air for a sector plunged into crisis by the pandemic.
After months of frustration, Elisabeth Zours, a 51-year-old administrative manager living in Berlin, took plane tickets as soon as the borders were reopened in mid-October to finally go to the United States to see her favorite group: the Rolling Stones. “I have tickets for four concerts, first in Atlanta, then Detroit, Austin and Hollywood, Florida”, tells this fan to the height of satisfaction.
Monster traffic jams expected at border posts in Mexico
For their part, the Mexican authorities expect huge traffic jams at border posts. “There will be portable toilets installed on the three decks, because according to the authorities of the United States the waiting times could reach four hours. We ask drivers to be patient ”, said César Alberto Tapia the director of road safety for the border town of Ciudad Juarez, connected to El Paso (Texas) by three international bridges. The exchange offices in Ciudad Juarez have reported a shortage of dollars in recent days.
Along the immense Mexican border, many American cities, in Texas or California, suffered economically from this restriction of trade. “The pandemic has affected everyone and we are just waiting for our people to come and visit us too”, Marcos Rivera, owner of a clothing store in El Paso, Texas, told AFP.
More anecdotally, in the north of the continent, the rich Canadian retirees will be able without fear, at the time of the first frosts, to undertake their annual transhumance by car towards Florida and its climatic delicacies.
Vaccination and testing
More than thirty countries are affected by the lifting of the “travel ban”. But entry will not be completely free and the American authorities intend to monitor the vaccination status of travelers, at the same time as they will continue to require negative Covid tests.
US health officials have indicated that all vaccines approved by the World Health Organization (WHO) will be accepted. For now, according to the WHO emergency procedure, these are vaccines:
- AstraZeneca
- Johnson & johnson
- Moderna
- Pfizer-BioNTech
- Covaxin
- Sinopharm
- Sinovac
For travelers arriving by air, the United States will request from Monday, in addition to proof of vaccination and a test within three days before departure, the establishment by the airlines of a contact tracking system.
For the overland route, the restrictions will be lifted in two stages. From Monday, 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 vaccination obligation will apply to all visitors crossing land borders, regardless of their reason for entry.