America's borders reopen today to thousands of international travelers from the UK, Europe, Mexico, and Canada for the first time sinc...
America's borders reopen today to thousands of international travelers from the UK, Europe, Mexico, and Canada for the first time since March 2020, when former President Donald Trump slammed the country's ports closed at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Until now, the only people who have been able to enter the US from those countries are American citizens, green-card holders or those who obtained national interest exemptions from the ban.
Starting Monday, travelers can visit the US again from anywhere so long as they prove they are fully vaccinated and have a negative COVID-19 test.
The only exemptions to the vaccination requirement is for kids under 18, who also need a negative COVID test if they are aged over two, diplomats, US military personnel, people with medical exemptions and a small number from countries where the vaccine rate is less than 10 percent.
The vast majority of those arriving today are expected to be British or European travelers, visiting family in the US for the first time, of British or European travelers who have not left America until now to return home and be able to get back into the US again after their trip.
British Airways and Virgin Atlantic launched a special tandem flight from Heathrow to JFK to mark the occasion. The planes will land shortly before 11am, bringing 662 passengers with them on two A350s. British Airways is launching 26 flights to the US today alone, bringing 8,600 passengers who were previously banned.
Some travelers were banned from boarding the planes on Monday because they showed up with the wrong documents.
Delta has three flights going to the US from the UK today. The planes will land at JFK, Atlanta and Detroit, bringing 750 passengers.
British Airways flight BA 001 and Virgin Atlantic flight VS take off in tandem from Heathrow on Monday as the first US bound flights from the UK carrying tourists since March 2020. The planes carry 331 passengers each and are expected to land at JFK shortly before 11am
Virgin Atlantic flight VS3 (front) and British Airways flight BA001 (back) perform a synchronised departure on parallel runways at London Heathrow Airport
British travelers prepare to check in for flights at the Virgin Atlantic and Delta Airlines check-in desks at Heathrow Terminal 3 in London on Monday morning. Restrictions have lifted for the first time in 20 months, allowing anyone with a negative COVID-19 test and proof of full vaccination, to travel to America
It's a party! A performer dressed as Uncle Sam juggles at the check-in desk for Virgin Atlantic and Delta on Monday morning
LONDON: Performers entertain passengers at London Heathrow Airport's T3
An Elvis impersonator entertains travelers at Heathrow on Monday as people prepare to board flights
LONDON: Passengers queue at London Heathrow Airport's T3 as the US reopens its borders to UK visitors
LONDON: Virgin Atlantic staff at London Heathrow Airport's T3 ahead of the departure of Virgin Atlantic flight VS3
LONDON: Virgin Atlantic cabin crew staff at London Heathrow Airport's T3 ahead of the departure of Virgin Atlantic flight VS3
The first flight expected to land at JFK from one of the previously-banned lists is a Delta/Air France flight from Paris, that is scheduled to land at Terminal 1 at 10.30am.
The land border from Mexico, which remained closed while air travel was allowed, is now reopen, and there are snaking lines of trucks and cars at it already.
Canadian travelers can now drive across the border too for the first time but they must return home with a negative COVID-19 test.
Travel across land borders from Canada and Mexico has been largely restricted to workers whose jobs are deemed essential after Donald Trump imposed the ban in March 2020 as Covid-19 spread around the world.
At the San Ysidro crossing port at Tijuana, Mexico, street vendors were taking food to drivers stuck in the line-ups overnight as thousands of Mexicans, many of them separated from their families for months, are set to pour across the frontier today.
The astonishing backup of cars and trucks comes amid the worst migrant crisis at the southern border since 1986 with more than 1.7 million illegal entrants into the US between October last year and September 2021.
Illegal crossings began skyrocketing in the months after President Joe Biden was inaugurated, with his administration accused of encouraging a humanitarian catastrophe after breaking from Trump's tough border policy.
At Niagara Falls, there was a trail of cars and RVs stretching across the Rainbow Bridge as Canadians head over from Ontario to New York state for some long-awaited American tourism.
The long lines to get into the US from Mexico come amid a continuing crisis at the border, as the number of migrants arrested at the southern border in the 2021 fiscal year is the highest since 1986, new Customs and Border Protection data shows.
The data, which is still unpublished but was obtained by The Washington Post, shows that border authorities detained more than 1.7 million migrants along the U.S.-Mexico border between October 2020 through September 2021.
The data is expected to be released publicly late this week.
Illegal crossings began skyrocketing in the months after President Joe Biden was inaugurated – and while the administration initially tried to blame Trump's policies for the increase, migrants have repeatedly said they made the trek to the U.S. with the belief the new administration would allow them to stay.
'They weren't wrong,' North Carolina Representative Dan Bishop tweeted of migrants' assumptions about being able to stay in the U.S. illegally under Biden's leadership.
Another pull, migrants said, was the labor shortages in the U.S. exhibiting to them a need for workers.
In another dismissal of the growing crisis, Biden described the rise in spring 2021 as consistent with seasonal norms. That, however, did not remain true as the highest-levels of illegal crossings came during the hottest months of the year, July and August.
More than 200,000 migrants were taken into CBP custody each month.
Biden's team has continued to dismiss the crisis at the southern border, refusing to call it just that – a crisis – even as humanitarian issues emerged with overflowing holding and processing centers that reportedly served undercooked or spoiled food to unaccompanied minor migrants, as well as limited outdoor time and shower use.
The US is bracing for a flood of vaccinated international visitors from all countries after COVID-19 travel restrictions are lifted on Monday - but tourists should expect to be turned away if the were inoculated with a shot of the Russia or China versions.
Foreign travelers are being warned of long lines and crammed conditions as US airports expect a swell of tourists who haven't been allowed to visit since the pandemic lockdowns began in March 2020.
'It's going to be a bit sloppy at first,' Delta Air Lines Chief Executive Ed Bastian warned.
MEXICO: Long lines at the United States-Mexico border as travel for vaccinated, non-essential workers returns
CANADA: A line of Canadian travelers in their cars or motor homes, stretches across the Rainbow Bridge between Niagara Falls, Ontario, and Niagara Falls New York, on Sunday night
MEXICO: Cars lining-up to cross the border at San Ysidro crossing port on the Mexico-United States border in Tijuana, Baja California state, Mexico, on Sunday night
MEXICO: The Biden administration warned of long lines and told travelers to have their paperwork ready at the border
MEXICO: Travel across land borders from Canada and Mexico has been largely restricted to workers whose jobs are deemed essential for the past 20 months due to the pandemic
MEXICO: Customs and Border Protection also urged people traveling for non-essential reasons to avoid crossing at peak times
MEXICO: Cars lining-up to cross the border at San Ysidro crossing port on the Mexico-United States border in Tijuana
'I can assure you, there will be lines unfortunately,' Bastian said, adding that 'we'll get it sorted out.'
Incoming visitors must also have received a vaccine that was approved by the FDA or WHO - which excludes shots such as the Sputnik V from Russia or the CanSino from China.
In terms of travel conditions, airlines such as United are expecting about 50 percent more total international inbound passengers on Monday as compared with the week before.
Delta also said it has seen a 450 percent increase in international point-of-sale bookings, compared to the six weeks prior to the announcement that the US was reopening.
'As we expect high demand when the US lifts its existing air and land travel restrictions Monday, we are taking critical steps to be prepared by providing additional resources,' White House spokesman Kevin Munoz said on Twitter.
For passengers, the lifted restrictions will allow them to visit family members, friends, and loved ones who they have been apart from since the start of the pandemic.
Bhavna Patel is booked on a Monday flight from London to New York to see her first grandchild after watching him grow up on FaceTime for more than a year.
Another passenger, Anna Zwing, 28, is flying from Frankfurt to Chicago to see her boyfriend for the first time in over two years.
'My boyfriend and I are super excited and are counting down the hours til we're finally reunited again!' Zwing said in an email, according to CNN. 'He keeps telling me that he can barely sleep out of excitement.
CANADA: A pedestrian walks past a line of Canadian travelers in their passenger cars or motor homes on the Rainbow Bridge between Niagara Falls, Ontario and Niagara Falls, New York in the early hours of Monday
CANADA: Canadian cars stretch across the Rainbow Bridge between Niagara Falls, Ontario and Niagara Falls, New York
CANADA: Cars wait to cross the US border on Sunday night ahead of Biden's announcement on Monday
Janet Simoni, of London, Ontario, embraces her husband her husband Lincoln at his home after the U.S. reopened its land borders to fully vaccinated travellers for the first time since coronavirus disease (COVID-19) restrictions were imposed, in Keego Harbor, Michigan
CANADA: Canadian travelers wait in line to cross the border into the United States across the Rainbow Bridge in Niagara Falls, Ontario
'For me it's still so surreal that it's actually about to happen! So I'll believe it when I land in Chicago.'
The rules have barred most non-U.S. citizens who within the prior 14 days have been in 33 countries -- the 26 Schengen countries in Europe without border controls, China, India, South Africa, Iran, Brazil, Britain and Ireland.
Trade group U.S. Travel said the countries accounted for 53 per cent of all overseas visitors to the United States in 2019 and border communities were hit hard by the loss of tourists crossing from Mexico and Canada.
The group estimates declines in international visitation 'resulted in nearly $300 billion in lost export income' since March 2020.
U.S. airlines are boosting flights to Europe and other destinations that were impacted by the restrictions.
Airlines are planning events on Monday with executives meeting some of the first flights.
Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo and United Airlines President Brett Hart are holding an event at Chicago's O'Hare International Airport Monday to mark the reopening.
U.S. officials also are planning an Instagram live chat on Nov. 9 to help answer questions.
In fiscal year 2021, more than 1.7 million migrants were taken into U.S. custody, new numbers being released later this week reveal. Here a group of migrants are process by immigration officials after crossing illegally from Mexico into Roma, Texas on September 30
The total encounters in FY 2021 are the highest since 1986 and far surpass any migration numbers in the surge during Donald Trump's presidency
Haitian migrants wait on Tuesday to board a boat that will take them to Colombia as they trek from South America to the U.S. – in a sign the migration crisis will not cease any time soon
Foreign travelers are being warned of long lines and crammed airport conditions when they are finally allowed to visit the US on Monday
In addition to vaccinations, visitors must also provide proper documentation to enter into the US
Many international flights are expected to operate close to full or full on Monday, with high passenger volume throughout the following weeks.
Airlines will check vaccination documentation for international travelers as they currently do for COVID-19 test results.
At land border crossings, U.S. Customs and Border Protection will ask if travelers have been vaccinated and spot check some documentation.
Children under 18 are exempt from the new vaccine requirements.
Non-tourist travelers from nearly 50 countries with nationwide vaccination rates of less than 10 per cent will also be eligible for exemption.
Also Monday, new contact tracing rules will take effect requiring airlines to collect information from international air passengers if needed 'to follow up with travelers who have been exposed to COVID-19 variants or other pathogens.'
In addition, hopeful foreign travelers who have received the unapproved Sputnik V and CanSino shots are now pushing to get US-approved vaccines to gain access into the country.
The Sputnik V vaccine has been used in about 70 countries worldwide.
Both vaccines became one of the first registered for their respective countries during summer 2020 only months after the global COVID outbreak.
The WHO has yet to approve the Sputnik V vaccine for an emergency list using despite mass worldwide distribution.
A US Homeland Security Border Patrol agent on horseback patrols the area near where the US-Mexico border fence meets the Pacific Ocean in Imperial Beach, California on Sunday
Pedestrians and cars queue to cross the border at San Ysidro crossing port on the Mexico-United States border in Tijuana
A street vendor stands between cars queueing to cross the border at San Ysidro crossing port on the Mexico-United States border in Tijuana
US Homeland Security Border Patrol agents on horseback patrol the area near where the US-Mexico border fence meets the Pacific Ocean in Imperial Beach, California
'There are exactly zero reasons for such decisions,' Leonid Slutsky, chairman of the foreign relations committee in the Russian Duma said, according to Associated Press.
'The effectiveness and safety of the Sputnik V vaccine has been proven not only by specialists, but also by its practical application.'
Russia was added in the high-risk travel category this week by the CDC as a surge of cases have been reported. The country also only has a 34 per cent vaccination rate.
China has yet to ease travel restrictions, despite 75 per cent of the population being vaccinated.
Other Asian Pacific countries, however, have began the process of opening their borders to foreign travelers.
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