Recent US entry requirements

[House2022]

Hi! I am thinking of booking a last-minute trip (August) to the US with DH and DC (8 and 12 years old) - can anyone share their recent experience in passing through immigration control and covid checks for me please?

Immigration depends on your passport and status, i.e. whether US citizen, permanent resident, visa holder or travelling on ESTA.

No Covid checks last time I entered at the beginning of May.

Your airline should have a Travel Ready section on their website, with all the information you need.

As long as you’re double vaccinated with a vaccine recognised by the FDA you no longer need to show a negative Covid test for entry. Children under 18 are exempt and do not need to be vaccinated or show a negative test.

Immigration control experience depends a lot on where you’re travelling to: JFK almost always takes forever just because of passenger volume. I recently got through immigration at Detroit Wayne in about 20 minutes.

Thank you @FlowerArranger and @ComtesseDeSpair for your advice! We are all British passport holders and both me and DH are tripled vaccinated by NHS.

The children are not vaccinated though. On the UK government website, it says

"After arrival in the US, children 17 and under that are not fully vaccinated may be required to attest that they will take a test 3 to 5 days and will self-isolate should any symptoms develop or if they test positive. A parent or other authorized person should attest on behalf of a passenger 17 and under."

Since it says "may", I am wondering how frequently this happens in practice?

The CDC information is here:

www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/travelers/international-travel/index.html

I'm afraid I have no idea how often unvaccinated children are tested. I'd expect not very often, but if you are selected, you'll just have to deal with it and get them tested. I'm not sure what the situation is now that the communal testing centres are no longer operating, but some pharmacies and private laboratories offer testing.

Maybe talk to your airline?