USA holiday

[BanAnnaHam]

My friend seems to think she can go on a summer holiday to the USA and shes planning on staying with a Uni friend but has no ties herself. Ive said that I don't think you can just make up a reason to waltz in but shes said shes going to say shes seeing family and they won't ask for any proof.

AIBU to think border control may not be a walk in the park?

It’s unlikely she’d get out of the UK if ineligible to land in the USA - the airlines have to take reasonable precaution that whoever they are carrying has a right of entry. I have been asked to see visas before now and I know that once when travelling through Miami to an onwards destination, the checkin staff made a number of phone calls to check I didn’t need a visa to just be in transit.

She won’t get a visa. She will be sent back on the next plane, that’s if they even let her get on the plane in the UK.
uk.usembassy.gov/visas/u-s-visa-and-travel-faqs/

She's an idiot to risk it. I wouldn't mess with US Border Control.

@BanAnnaHam

My friend seems to think she can go on a summer holiday to the USA and shes planning on staying with a Uni friend but has no ties herself. Ive said that I don't think you can just make up a reason to waltz in but shes said shes going to say shes seeing family and they won't ask for any proof.

AIBU to think border control may not be a walk in the park?

The borders are closed at the moment I think.

She could probably find a way to get there, if she stays in a non shengen country for 14 days prior I think.
But she wouldn’t be insured as it’s going against foreign office advice, going to the USA without insurance is absolute madness, where just an infected insect bite could cost a fortune.
Those who say it won’t happen to me are those who beg on social media for someone to pay their medical/ repatriation fees.
Which in the US could run into hundreds of thousands of $
We desperately want to go back and are in fact booked for later this year but if we can’t go it’s all cancellable, not worth risking my house over.

🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣 she’s an utter idiot to do it at the moment.

She won’t be able to get a visa and she’ll be sent back home. USA border control do not fuck around in good times let alone when borders are closed in a pandemic.

The US borders are not closed, but certainly people who have been in Britain in the last 14 days will not get in without a visa.

However 14 days in for example Mexico is currently fine.

But she wouldn’t be insured as it’s going against foreign office advice

There are plenty of insurance companies who would insure this, it's unlikely to even be particularly more expensive than usual (as the risks are similarly negligible)

www.gov.uk/foreign-travel-advice/usa/entry-requirements

“Since 16 March 2020, it is not possible for most British nationals to enter the USA if they have been in the UK, Ireland, Schengen zone, Iran, Brazil, or China within the previous 14 days. On 30 January 2021, South Africa was added. Those arriving from outside these areas will need to get a visa or an Electronic System for Travel Authorisation (ESTA) visa waiver to enter or transit the USA as a visitor.“

Ordinarily you could pop over to stay with friends, provided you don’t have certain things on your criminal record, haven’t overstayed visas in the past and can prove you can support yourself and plan to return home when you say you will.
But now due to COVID-19 you have to have a REALLY good excuse to go over, and they WILL check. You don’t want to lie to US border control, you will earn yourself a ban on re-entry and a flight on the next plane home. A friend’s mother took the kids on holiday, decided to stop on for a bloke she met out there and got a ban on returning. My friend is interviewed every time she travels there herself now, even though she is 40 and has always been a model visitor.

I have to get a visa to go and and see my dad and then self isolate in a hotel for 7 days

I doubt I shall be going or that shall be holidays to many parts of the world this summer

Sadly I think I just have to wait

There are no ESTA’s available at the moment to fly direct from U.K. to the US.

She can do it if she first spends 14 days in a country which is not on the US prohibited list, as a PP says, Mexico is the top choice. Then coming back she will need to self isolate and test. Otherwise, she will not be able to get an ESTA and she will be refused boarding for her flight. She won’t get anywhere near border control. Unless, of course, she is a US citizen or permanent resident. We have resident visas, and a home there and we can’t travel there from the U.K. at the moment.