Plan Your Flight From India to the US with Proper COVID 19 Travel Requirements

Indian travelers can now relax in peace if they have been thinking about traveling internationally. The President of the US Joe Biden signed a new order this Monday, which imposes new vaccine requirements on the foreign national travelers on India to US and US to India flights. The new travel requirements lifted the severe restrictions on travel from India, China, and most of Europe, and is coming into effect starting November 8.

ANI quoted the spokesperson for the US Dept. of State on Twitter, “Foreign national air travelers to the US will be required to be fully vaccinated and to provide proof of vaccination status prior to boarding an airplane to the US. New vaccination policy will come into effect for international travelers on November 8”.

Here’s What You Need to Know

1. Indian citizens who have taken either of the Bharat Biotech’s Sputnik or Covaxin will not be able to travel to the US next month, according to CDC’s notification.
2. Vaccines approved by the World Health Organisation (WHO) are the only ones recognized by the US and travelers who have taken only those vaccinations will be allowed for air travel to the USA.
3. World Health Organisation (WHO) has approved only 7 vaccines, which include- Johnson & Johnson’s Ad26.COV2.S, Pfizer/BioNTech’s BNT162b2, Moderna’s m-RNA-1273, Oxford/AstraZeneca’s AZD1222, Sinopharm’s BBIBP-CorV (Vero Cells), Sinovac’s CoronaVac and Serum Institute of India’s Covishield.
4. Children who are below 2 years of age do not need to be tested for COVID-19.
5. Before boarding a flight to the USA from a foreign country, all individuals above 2 years of age need to present negative COVID19 viral test results, within the time period on the basis of their vaccination status or after recovering from COVID-19 in the last 90 days.
6. A point to note is that fully vaccinated travelers who are entering the US internationally, regardless of citizenship, need to present a negative COVID-19 test result that is taken within 3 days prior to boarding.
7. For air travelers who are still unvaccinated, which includes unvaccinated US citizens and permanent residents abiding by the law, the restrictions state that they need to present the negative COVID-19 test result done within 1 day prior to boarding the flight.

For further details on travel requirements by air to the US, please check out the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) official website to know more. It is recommended to hold off all international travel, including India to US and US to India last minute flights, until you’re fully vaccinated.

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