Travel Ban Remains in Place for certain countries.

silhouette plane in the air

The U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) and the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) have published an advanced copy of a Notification of Termination of Arrival Restrictions which will be published in the Federal Register on September 15, 2020. Effective September 14, 2020, at 12:01 am (ET), flights carrying passengers recently present in China (excluding the Special Administrative Regions of Hong Kong and Macau), Iran, the Schengen Area, the United Kingdom, Ireland, and Brazil will no longer be required to land at 15 designated airports in order to conduct COVID health screenings.

The CBP Liaison Committee would emphasize to all immigration attorneys that this Notification does not lift or change the country-specific COVID travel bans for the countries named above, the immigrant visa travel ban (Presidential Proclamation 10014), or the non-immigrant visa travel ban (Presidential Proclamation 10052). The Notification simply relates to health screenings at designated U.S. airports. The AILA CBP Liaison Committee has confirmed with CBP that the travel bans remain in place and travelers affected will still be required to obtain a National Interest Exemption (NIE) to travel to the United States.

You may find more information by linking here: COVID-19 Resource Center and the featured issues page on Presidential Proclamations Temporarily Suspending Entry of Certain Immigrants and Nonimmigrants.

Cite as AILA Doc. No. 20091406.