November 08, 2021 - From today, fully vaccinated Croats will be able to travel to the United States again. They'll need to present their vaccination status and a pre-departure negative viral test from a sample taken within three days of travel to the United States before boarding.

As announced by the U.S. Embassy in Croatia, starting on November 8, foreign national air travelers to the United States will be required to be fully vaccinated and to provide proof of vaccination status prior to boarding an airplane to fly to the United States, with only limited exceptions. The Biden Administration announced a new international air travel policy that is stringent, consistent across the globe, and guided by public health.

The CDC has determined that for the purposes of entry into the United States, vaccines accepted will include those FDA approved or authorized, as well as vaccines with an emergency use listing (EUL) from the World Health Organization (WHO). See the CDC's website for more details. Fully vaccinated air travelers will continue to be required to show documentation of a pre-departure negative viral test from a sample taken within three days of travel to the United States before boarding. That includes all travelers – U.S. citizens, lawful permanent residents (LPRs), and foreign nationals.

As of today, fully vaccinated foreign nationals can again travel to the United States ??! Check out @TravelGov and visit https://t.co/fBuPjsOAMj for more information. And don’t forget to fill out your ESTA application before traveling ➡️https://t.co/sXmGHMpIMS pic.twitter.com/4oKWjL6RGO

— U.S. Embassy Zagreb (@USEmbZagreb) November 8, 2021

To further strengthen protections, unvaccinated travelers – whether U.S. citizens, LPRs, or the small number of excepted unvaccinated foreign nationals – will now need to show documentation of a negative viral test from a sample taken within one day of travel to the United States.

In addition to submitting all the documentation mentioned above, fully vaccinated Croats will need to fill out an ESTA application before traveling, which can be found here. In addition to the recent inclusion of Croatia in the VISA program and the increases in flights between the two countries, traveling to the United States has fewer barriers than before.

For more information regarding traveling to the U.S., check the FAQs on the Bureau of Consular Affairs website.

For more on flights to Croatia and other travel announcements, make sure to check out our dedicated travel section.

September 21, 2021 - Travelers who provide proof of full vaccination against the coronavirus before boarding a flight will be able to enter the United States, ending an 18-month ban on travel from 33 countries includes members of the European Union as part of the U.S. pandemic travel restrictions.

The New York Times reports that the Biden administration will lift pandemic travel restrictions starting in November for foreigners who are fully vaccinated against the coronavirus, reopening the country to thousands of people, including those who have been separated from family in the United States during the pandemic, and easing a major source of tension with Europe.

The halt to the 18-month ban on travel from 33 countries, including members of the European Union, China, Iran, South Africa, Brazil, and India, could help rejuvenate a U.S. tourism industry that has been crippled by the pandemic travel restrictions. The industry suffered a $500 billion loss in travel expenditures in 2020, according to the U.S. Travel Association, a trade group that promotes travel to and within the United States.

In New York City alone, the lack of tourists wiped out 89,000 jobs and resulted in a loss of more than $60 billion in revenue, the state comptroller found.

“Everyone says New York is back, New York is back, but it’s not really back until tourists are back from all countries,” said Leyla Saleh, 28, a pastry chef whose father was forced to shut down his gift shop in Midtown Manhattan last year because he did not have enough business.

Foreign travelers will need to show proof of vaccination before boarding and a negative coronavirus test within three days of coming to the United States, Jeffrey D. Zients, the White House pandemic coordinator, said on Monday. Unvaccinated Americans who want to travel home from overseas will have to clear stricter testing requirements. They will need to test negative for the coronavirus one day before traveling to the United States and show proof that they have bought a test to take after arriving in the United States, Mr. Zients said.

“International travel is critical to connecting families and friends, to fueling small and large businesses, to promoting the open exchange of ideas and culture,” Mr. Zients said. “That’s why, with science and public health as our guide, we have developed a new international air travel system that both enhances the safety of Americans here at home and enhances the safety of international air travel.”

The changes announced on Monday apply only to air travel and do not affect pandemic travel restrictions along the land border, Mr. Zients said. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention considers people fully inoculated two weeks after they receive the second dose of the Pfizer or Moderna vaccine, or the single dose of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine.

Those who have received vaccines listed for emergency use by the World Health Organization, such as the AstraZeneca vaccine, would also be considered fully vaccinated, according to a statement from Thomas Skinner, a C.D.C. spokesman.

The C.D.C. will also issue an order directing airlines to collect phone numbers and email addresses of travelers for a new contact-tracing system. Authorities will then follow up with the travelers after arrival to ask whether they are experiencing symptoms of the virus.

Although the new rules open up travel for some, they shut it down for others.

Unvaccinated people will soon be broadly banned from visiting the United States even if they are coming from countries such as Japan, which have not faced restrictions on travel to America during the pandemic. The restrictions will create substantial complications for people who want to travel to the United States from countries where it is more difficult to get vaccinated, according to Willie Walsh, the director-general of the International Air Transport Association, a trade group of the world’s airlines.

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