Indians gear up for post-Diwali US visits
MANY Indians are planning their long overdue visits to US as the White House announced that fully vaccinated travelers from 33 countries, including India, can visit the country.
The US will reopen its land and air borders on November 8 to foreign visitors fully vaccinated against Covid-19, ending a more than 18-month ban on travel from much of the globe that separated families, hobbled tourism and strained diplomatic ties.
The decision to ease restrictions was ‘guided by public health, stringent and consistent,’ said White House assistant press secretary Kevin Munoz in a tweet on Friday (15) announcing the new policy.
According to reports, travel agents said that there have already been a huge interest and enquiries about travel from India to the US, as many have been expecting the restrictions to be lifted before the year end.
‘There are already a lot of tentative ticket requests for post Diwali travel,’ said Badrinath Singh,’ a Delhi-based travel and tour operator.
While many families are looking at meeting their relatives in the US soon after the festivities are over in India, some others are not yet ready to travel yet.
Post-Diwali the holiday season will be in full bloom in the US, with travelers flying across the country for Thanksgiving.
Though the White House has said that only fully vaccinated travelers can enter the US, there is a lack of clarity about children intending to travel along with vaccinated parents. As there are yet no approved vaccines for under 18 in India, it leaves the younger lot still unvaccinated and unable to travel.
Immigration lawyer Nishith Shah advises travelers to wait until clear guidelines are announced, and not rush into making any travel arrangements.
So, while some in India await the final directives, many are heaving a sigh of relief on the long awaited travel restrictions coming to an end. In an effort to slow the spread of the coronavirus, US borders were closed after March 2020 to travelers from large parts of the world, including the European Union, Britain and China, India and Brazil. Overland visitors from Mexico and Canada were also banned.
Earlier this week, a White House source said the land border opening would happen in two phases.
Initially, vaccines will be required for ‘non-essential’ trips - such as visiting family or tourism - although unvaccinated travelers will still be allowed into the country for ‘essential’ trips, as they have been for the last year and a half.
A second phase beginning in early January 2022 will require all visitors to be fully vaccinated to enter the United States by land, no matter the reason for their trip.
The new schedule means the land border restrictions, which had been set to expire on October 21, will have to be extended one more time before the new rules enter into force, the White House official indicated.