The White House on Friday announced it will lift travel restrictions for fully vaccinated foreign nationals effective Nov 8, at land borders and for air travel.
Curbs on non-essential travellers at land borders have been in place since March 2020 to address the COVID-19 pandemic. Reuters first reported the announcement earlier on Friday.
Restrictions on non-US citizens were first imposed on air travellers from China in January 2020 by then-President Donald Trump and then extended to dozens of other countries, without any clear metrics for how and when to lift them.
The United States had lagged many other countries in lifting such restrictions, and allies welcomed the move. The US restrictions have barred travellers from most of the world, including tens of thousands of foreign nationals with relatives or business links in the United States.
The White House on Tuesday announced it would lift restrictions at its land borders and ferry crossings with Canada and Mexico for fully vaccinated foreign nationals in early November. They are similar but not identical to the requirements announced last month for international air travellers.
Unvaccinated visitors will still be barred from entering the United States from Canada or Mexico at land borders.
Canada on Aug 9 began allowing fully vaccinated US visitors for non-essential travel.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) told Reuters last week the United States will accept the use by international visitors of COVID-19 vaccines authorized by US regulators or the World Health Organization.
There are still some remaining questions to be resolved, including how and what exemptions the Biden administration will grant to the vaccine requirements.
The White House announced on Sept. 20 that the United States would lift restrictions on air travellers from 33 countries in early November. It did not disclose the precise date at the time.
Starting Nov 8, the United States will admit fully vaccinated foreign air travellers from the 26 so-called Schengen countries in Europe, including France, Germany, Italy, Spain, Switzerland and Greece, as well as Britain, Ireland, China, India, South Africa, Iran and Brazil. The unprecedented US restrictions have barred non-US citizens who were in those countries within the past 14 days.
The United States has allowed foreign air travellers from more than 150 countries throughout the pandemic, a policy that critics said made little sense because some countries with high COVID-19 rates were not on the restricted list, while some on the list had the pandemic more under control.
The White House said last month it would apply vaccine requirements to foreign nationals travelling from all other countries.
Non-US air travellers will need to show proof of vaccination before boarding a flight, and will need to show proof of a recent negative COVID-19 test. Foreign visitors crossing a land border will not need to show proof of a recent negative COVID-19 test.
The CDC plans to soon issue new rules on contact tracing for international air travellers.