On June 1, 2021, the U.S. Department of State (DOS) issued further guidelines on eligibility for Exceptions of National Interest (NIEs) to the travel bans from the Schengen area of the EU, Great Britain, Ireland, China, Iran, Brazil and South Africa and India. This warning updates the latest DOS guidelines as of April 30, 2021, as discussed in our previous section attentive.
In the background, the Trump and Biden administrations have introduced numerous travel bans related to COVID over the past 18 months. This travel ban requires that people staying in any of the regions or countries mentioned above either receive an exemption from the ban or be quarantined in a third country for 14 days before entering the United States. There are also a number of individuals who are exempt from this ban, including U.S. citizens, permanent residents, and certain close relatives of U.S. citizens and permanent residents.
The NIE criteria of March 2021 previously only applied to people in the Schengen area, the UK or Ireland. With the update from April 30th, the NIE update became universal for all countries with a COVID-related travel ban and now this update from June 1st, 2021 extends the admission criteria for a NIE.
Our Immigration Resources page has a comprehensive look at all of the current ones Travel bans in the United States.
June 1, 2021 U.S. Department of State policy revisions for Exceptions of National Interest
The criteria for exceptions of national interest to this travel ban will continue with the same guidance as the April 30 update to allow exceptions for certain travelers who provide “critical infrastructure support”. The June 1, 2021 guidelines add “travelers providing vital assistance or executive direction to significant economic activity in the United States” to the criteria. This latest addition to the NIE criteria is similar to the original 2020 NIE guideline, which has been used extensively to allow senior business executives to travel to the United States. This NIE eligibility has been removed from the March 2021 guidelines, making entry into the US much more difficult, even for high-level executives. As this latest directive is new it is not sure if the U.S. embassies and consulates will interpret it as they did last year, but adding this expanded foundation for an NIE to this latest directive is a hopeful sign.
Travelers to the United States who are still eligible to apply for an NIE exemption include academics, students, journalists, humanitarian travelers, public health workers, and national security travelers.
Anyone affected by the travel ban should contact their Mintz immigration attorney to discuss the effects of the travel ban and for guidance on how to obtain an NIE exemption.
The impact of COVID on international travel and the issuance of visas at consular posts abroad is an ever changing and fluid situation. We expect the U.S. Department of State and the Department of Homeland Security to provide more information on travel to the U.S. and we will continue to provide guidance as new information becomes available.
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