Travelling to USA

[Zippy1510]

DH is an American citizen meaning technically myself and two DC (3 and 10 weeks) are currently able to enter the USA. FIL has a terminal illness and we don’t know how long he has left. He has expressed his wishes to meet DD (10 weeks) before it’s too late. DH wants us to travel over to see him. I am anxious to do this as 1) we have only had 1 of our vaccinations so far and therefore aren’t particularly protected against the newer variant 2) there have been reports on the BBC that the queues to clear immigration are going to be up to 10 times longer than normal- this has previously taken us up to 3h- I don’t see how we can queue with two young children for 30h?!? 3) I am hesitant to travel at all incase it contributes to spreading- we are both scientists and are on fairly edge about the constant viral evolution and what this means for vaccine efficacy. DH and I are currently divided on this issue- AIBU? I am happy to be told that I am!

Depends on what city you’re travelling to but queues won’t be 30 hours, that’s silly and a huge exaggeration. You’ll have to quarantine at a hotel when you come back I think.

Gosh it is hard, fastforward to 10 years from now and what do you think you'd wish you had done?

IMO, yours is a case of justifiable need to travel. How long ago did you have your vaccinations? Some places are doing walk up jabs, maybe you could get your second sooner?

3 hours immigration was completely not the norm, so you were already insanely unlucky if it took you that long, it will not be 30hours.

The reason not to travel would be quarantine on return, the risks to you all are very low, and may even be lower if you are in the US than if you were in the UK, quarantine after returning will nullify your risk of transmitting it. Isolation works.

The reason to travel would be for your DH to say goodbye to his dying father and him see his granddaughter, personally those are things I would consider more important than quarantining - something many people have had to do regularly over the last year.

I think it's reasonable that your dh travel to see his father but I wouldn't be taking two small children for all the reasons you've mentioned and more.

I’d go. He’s dying. If you are American immigration queue will be much shorter. Best wishes.

I wouldn’t want to go either. YANBU at all. I’ve out of necessity flown long distance with an 8 week old, but it was very difficult...the changing air pressure was painful for the baby.

I know FIL wants to meet his new grand-daughter, that it is a dying wish of his,, but it seems a lot of Covid risk and travel risk (there are other more serious illnesses an infant can pick up while travelling, not just Covid). We can’t always get our dying wishes. That’s just reality.

I think DH should travel back there alone and you FaceTime with baby DD to FIL.

I'd go in those circumstances. I would regret not going.
No way are queues going to be 30 hours.
Ask for a chair in the queue if you need to but I wod expect them to be fairly quick as not many people travelling.

Which state? Depending on where, I’d probably go. I have family in 3 states and 2 of them are pretty much normal except mask wearing.

I would go. I don’t know to where you’re heading in the US, but here in CT the positivity rate is now only 0.75 percent and we dropped the mask mandate several weeks ago. You’ll have a lot more freedom of movement over here than you could currently in the UK.

GO! Your FIL is dying. If you faff around and procrastinate and wait until you feel "safe" it'll be too late.

As you have a 10 week old baby I'm assuming you're under about 42 at most, probably a lot younger. So are exceptionally low risk.

At JFK at least, I am always waved to the front when travelling with an infant.

It won't help this time but definitely worth getting Global Entry if you expect to go with any frequency.

I'm a Yank and live in New York. Even over the holiday weekend the queues weren't that long. Try to fly in early in the day, which shouldn't be that hard since we're hours behind you.

We're vaccinating teenagers now and the spread of infections has slowed to the point that most places have lifted mask mandates. If you've had your first jab you're at very little risk coming here.

I would go. Fullfilling FIL dying wish of meeting his DGD is an entirely sensible and humane thing to do.

I’d go. Queues of 3 hours have never been the norm, I used to fly back and the most it’s ever taken me as a non citizen was about 30 minutes. It won’t take 30 hours. Also, I’d suggest you book with British Airways if you can because any of the American based airlines will want your 3YO in a mask for the whole flight and will be really strict about it.

I'd go. Immigration has always been terrible into the USA, I've waited 2-3 hours on multiple occasions (I lived there and had residency in the past) but I haven't heard it's much worse. Some airports are worse

Lines for immigration can be bad but even when they were mainstream news last year because of the chaos they were nothing like that long.

If you are traveling on an UK passport and ESTA lines can be 3 hours long but hopefully not much longer.

Internally the USA is currently running fairly normally, mask mandates vary wildly state by state. Airlines are usually older than 2 for masks as are shops in our states.

I would go though.

I'd go. We've flown twice to the US during the pandemic and it was fine. I think of you don't go it will always be a sore point for your DH.

@lakesummer That's not quite right. Last summer ESTAs were suspended. Even when DH needed an ESTA there isn't a separate queue. We all clear through the American line.

Thanks all. We would be flying into DC (IAD) and staying in an area of MD with low rates. It’s the actual travelling I am more concerned about rather than the risk once we are there. I’ve had different experiences with queuing at the airport- I’ve occasionally been sent straight through with DH and the DC into the American citizens queue before to use the electronic passport scanners and I’ve also been told to go into the other nationals queue with the DC and meet up with DH on the other side. So time has ranged from 30 mins to 3h!

I have no idea where the BBC got the “up to ten times longer to queue/ clear immigration” information from- I just heard it and it’s stuck with me. I’m not sure of anyone is actually experiencing queues that long in the USA currently- and I’m not sure where I could find out that information (apart from here!).

I’d definitely go. Make sure you don’t book for peak times - weekends. Mid week will be quieter. It won’t be much fun, but if it makes a dying man and your DH happy it’s worth doing.

Ah, interesting @CricketsBats we haven't traveled since the pandemic but are thinking of seeing if it is possible this summer.

Friends have done this but I think had to visa exceptions, but none of us are USA passport or even green card holders.

We are going to have look carefully at how it currently works.

Sorry about your FIL. I'd go. I live in the US, and we've been travelling about with no problems. Covid rates are pretty low most places even though mask wearing, social distancing etc has been stopped in most places.

I flew to the US from the UK with a 3 month old and it was OK. The main problem was that I had jetlag whereas he just carried on with his normal sleep routine. It really helped to have someone locally who could take him for a couple of hours every so often for me to sleep.

I find it very hard to believe immigration queues will be 30 hours. They were long for a while right when incoming travel was restricted and everyone tried to get home at the same time, but that was more than a year ago.

I suspect your immigration queue coming back into the UK might be worse.

I’m pretty anti-travel at the moment, but you are in the one circumstance where I would consider making a trip. Also, if any of your kids are over 12, if you are staying for a couple of weeks you could probably get them vaccinated. The exact rules vary by state. Mine doesn’t have a residency requirement, you just need a parent to sign a consent form.