This article was prepared with the assistance of ABIL, the Alliance of Business Immigration Lawyers, of which Loan Huynh, Fredrikson Immigration Department Chair, is a member.
The United States has once again extended travel restrictions at its borders with Canada and Mexico for nonessential travel into the United States at least through August 21, 2021. The United States has done so monthly since March 2020 in response to the pandemic.
Canadians and many other U.S.-bound international travelers can fly into the United States if they receive a negative COVID-19 test. Canada announced on July 19, 2021, that fully vaccinated U.S. citizens and permanent residents can enter the country as of August 9, 2021. U.S. travelers to Canada must submit information electronically through ArriveCAN, meet eligibility and testing requirements and bring vaccination documentation.
Canada plans to open its borders for discretionary travelers from any country, traveling by any means, on September 7, 2021, if they have been fully vaccinated with Canadian government-accepted vaccines at least 14 days before entering Canada and meet specific entry requirements, “provided that Canada’s COVID-19 epidemiology remains favourable,” the government announced on July 19, 2021.
U.S. and Mexican officials “have mutually determined that non-essential travel between the United States and Mexico currently poses additional risk of transmission and spread of the virus associated with COVID-19 and places the populace of both nations at increased risk of contracting the virus associated with COVID-19,” the Federal Register notice for Mexico states. “Moreover, given the sustained human-to-human transmission of the virus, coupled with risks posed by new variants, returning to previous levels of travel between the two nations places the personnel staffing land ports of entry between the United States and Mexico, as well as the individuals traveling through these ports of entry, at increased risk of exposure to the virus associated with COVID-19.” The Federal Register notice for Canada makes similar statements.
