Starting Jan. 22, 2022, the Biden administration will require foreign national travelers engaged in essential travel to be fully vaccinated when crossing U.S. land borders or ferry terminals. Essential travel includes travel for work or study in the United States, emergency response, and public health. The new rules apply to foreign nationals; U.S. citizens and permanent residents may still enter the United States regardless of their vaccination status but are subject to additional testing requirements.

The new rules for essential travelers are in line with those that took effect Nov. 8, 2021, when the Biden administration lifted travel restrictions to allow fully vaccinated travelers engaged in non-essential (leisure) travel to enter the United States.

While much cross-border traffic was shut down in the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic, essential travelers have been able to travel unimpeded via land borders or ferry terminals. Starting Jan. 22, 2022, however, all foreign national travelers crossing U.S. land borders or ferry terminals – traveling for essential and non-essential reasons – must be fully vaccinated for COVID-19 and provide related proof of vaccination. Any exceptions to the vaccination requirement available to travelers at U.S. land borders are expected to be limited, just as exceptions currently available for air travel have been limited. See CDC guidance for details.

Tags: Biden administration, CDC, COVID-19, COVID-19 vaccine, Foreign Nationals, travel, vaccination
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Photo of Miriam C. Thompson Miriam C. Thompson

Miriam advises employers across all industries on business immigration and compliance. She has experience with managing the full range of U.S. employment-based immigration filings, including intracompany transferee programs, specialty occupations, traders and investors, labor certifications, trainees, extraordinary ability petitions, religious workers, and national…

Miriam advises employers across all industries on business immigration and compliance. She has experience with managing the full range of U.S. employment-based immigration filings, including intracompany transferee programs, specialty occupations, traders and investors, labor certifications, trainees, extraordinary ability petitions, religious workers, and national interest waivers. Miriam’s representative matters within her practice area include providing legal and policy guidance to large multinational companies, as well as individual clients, startup companies, and small and mid-size domestic corporations, with a focus on delivering effective strategies in the realm of worksite immigration compliance and U.S. immigration programs.

Miriam also counsels employers in connection with internal and external audits to ensure regulatory compliance with I-9 employment verification, E-Verify, and U.S. Department of Labor requirements. Her representative work includes developing enterprise-wide immigration policies for large employers and advising on immigration-related concerns of companies undergoing corporate restructuring, mergers and acquisitions, and reductions in workforce. She also supports multinational employers with complex global workforce needs and works with professionals from the firm’s labor and employment and tax and benefits groups to provide strategic planning on cross-border employee mobility.

Miriam lived, studied, and worked in Germany, Switzerland, and France. Her native language is German and she is conversational in French.

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