As previously reported, the United States has imposed a COVID-19 vaccination requirement on international travellers who are non-citizens (persons who are not US citizens, US nationals, lawful permanent residents of the United States, or traveling to the United States on an immigrant visa) since 2021. However, this is about to change. 

The COVID-19 vaccination requirement for non-citizen travellers has been in place since November 8, 2021:

• On October 25, 2021, President Biden issued a Presidential Proclamation, which revoked the United States’ existing COVID-19 air travel restrictions and replaced them with a requirement to be fully vaccinated against COVID-19. The Presidential Proclamation came into effect on November 8, 2021, and applied to all non-citizens traveling to the United States by air. 
• On October 29, 2021, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) also announced on its website that it would end its prohibition on non-essential travel and allow non-citizens who were fully vaccinated against COVID-19 to enter the United States for non-essential purposes, at land ports and ferry terminals as of November 8, 2021. 

On March 3, 2023, H.J. Res. 7, which resolved to formally end the COVID-19 national emergency, was approved by the Senate. It was previously approved by the House of Representatives on February 1, 2023. H.J. Res. 7 was presented to President Biden on April 5, 2023. Although he opposed H.J. Res. 7, President Biden ultimately signed it into law on April 10, 2023. 

On May 1, 2023, the White House announced that it would end the COVID-19 vaccination requirements for international air travellers “at the end of the day” on May 11, 2023, the same day that the COVID-19 national emergency was expected to end. DHS also announced that, as of May 12, 2023, it would no longer require non-citizen travellers entering the United States through land ports of entry or ferry terminals to be fully vaccinated against COVID-19. In other words, as of May 12, 2023, non-citizens will be permitted to travel to the United States (by air, by land, or by ferry) without having to prove that they are fully vaccinated against COVID-19. 

The White House announcement justified its decision to end the COVID-19 vaccination requirement as follows:

Since January 2021, COVID-19 deaths have declined by 95%, and hospitalizations are down nearly 91%. Globally, COVID-19 deaths are at their lowest levels since the start of the pandemic. Following a whole-of-government effort that led to a record number of nearly 270 million Americans receiving at least one shot of the COVID-19 vaccine, we are in a different phase of our response to COVID-19 than we were when many of these requirements were put into place.

The termination of the United States’ COVID-19 vaccination requirement should ensure consistency on both sides of the Canada-US border. As previously reported, Canada previously ended all of its COVID-19 travel restrictions and requirements (including its COVID-19 vaccination requirement) on October 1, 2022.

For more information on this topic, please contact the author Henry J. Chang.