The New York Times this morning has a piece asking the question on many peoples lips – why can Europeans (and Brits) not visit the US? The article explains the background but fails to suggest that any progress is being made to resolve the issues in a speedy fashion. There has been a ‘taskforce’ working on this for months with no outcomes. If anything was coming, I would have expected it to have been announced when the Amber country testing regime changes were announced. Apparently our UK Transport Minister thinks the problem is the US states and vaccination records. I though that there were CDC cards issued.  As does, apparently, the New York Times.

Meanwhile, the UK Government has included the USA in the changes to Amber countries from 19 July (Freedom Day), whereby those entering from the USA with two vaccinations (from the UK) will be able to avoid 10 days of isolation on entering the UK. They still have to undertake a COVID test three days before arrival and one on the second day after arrival at the cost of the traveller. However the Government is being warned of huge queues again at UK immigration if travel takes off whilst documents are checked. Delays of 4 hours are suggested.

However, these changes make little difference to UK tourists who are not permitted entry to the US. Based on my recent experiences US domestic flights and many hotels are full and airfares are high – I am not sure the US economy needs non-US travellers at the moment.

Rather concerning is a report from FlyerTalk that the special exemptions to travel made for essential business travel by the US Embassies, have been extended by 12 months and made multiple entry. Doesn’t look like they are expecting people getting in on ESTAs to resume any time soon!