Important Updates About United States Reopening for Travelers on November 8

The United States will lift its 1.5-year travel ban on November 8. It would first only open its borders to vaccinated travelers, which now turns out to be different. The White House made several significant additions to its reopening policy on October 25. Read it below.

Who can travel to the US?

On October 19, the White House initially announced that America would only open its borders to fully vaccinated people who also have an additional negative COVID-19 test.

Updates:

• Fully vaccinated people traveling to the US require a COVID-19 test not older than 3 days in addition to their vaccination certificate.
• Unvaccinated people traveling to the US must have a COVID-19 test taken no more than 1 day before departure.
• People who have recently recovered from COVID-19 are allowed to travel with a recovery certificate. To do this, they must provide a positive test result that is not older than 90 days. Additionally, a letter from a licensed healthcare provider with permission to travel is required.

The COVID-19 test required for travel to the US can be either an Antigen Rapid Test or a PCR test. The US government makes no distinction in this regard.

What counts as fully vaccinated

• You have been vaccinated for 2 weeks (14 days) with an approved single-dose COVID-19 vaccine (such as the Janssen vaccine).
• You have been vaccinated for 2 weeks (14 days) with an approved 2-dose COVID-19 vaccine.
• You have been vaccinated for 2 weeks (14 days) with a “mix-and-match” combination of accepted COVID-19 vaccines at least 17 days apart. (e.g., AstraZeneca and Pfizer)

If you do not meet these requirements, you are NOT fully vaccinated.

The US only accepts certain vaccines. For example, vaccines approved by the FDA or the World Health Organization. All vaccines used in the Netherlands are accepted in the US. You can read more details about this in the article about traveling to the United States is possible from November 8.

Minimum age requirements

All air passengers over the age of 2 require a negative corona test when traveling to the US. Depending on their vaccination status, they must take this test no more than 1 day or no more than 3 days before departure.

Children under the age of 18 who have not been vaccinated require a COVID-19 test taken no more than 1 day before departure.

Conclusion

The US won't keep its borders closed to unvaccinated travelers. The only disadvantage for unvaccinated travelers is that they must take an Antigen or PCR test a maximum of 1 day in advance. Vaccinated travelers have more flexibility with 3 days.

Read more on our United States travel advice page.