Trump bans all travel from Europe

From Europe only. But I doubt there will be many flights going to except to the United Kingdom.

My daughter and son-in-law are vacationing in Portugal in an attempt to avoid the summer crush of tourists. A good idea, really.

I'm not concerned about them getting back to the U.S. in a couple of weeks although it will be a bit more of a hassle, but not a crises.

I'm interested in seeing what will happen to this virus as the weather warms up. Often the flu fades in spring but not always.

Trump looked exhausted. Long day, I'm sure.

We were scheduled to fly into Berlin (thru LHR) next Saturday and return in two weeks.
It's time to come up with Plan B. At 69 years old, I'm in the target group.
We can also stay in the U.S. and travel domestically--if there was somewhere we wanted to see.
I think we'll just go to our RV that we keep in the beautiful Blue Ridge Mountains of NE Georgia.

Americans who wish to return during those 30 days will have to go through extra screening.

Or go through London.

Am I missing something about that obvious loophole?

Chiara
You aren’t missing anything. I’ll conceived maybe?

I wonder when the U.K. will stop flights from Europe?

I don’t know how this is going to help? I hope there is more to this plan that we don’t know yet.

This is from the statement issued by the DHS

In the next 48 hours, in the interest of public health, I intend to issue a supplemental Notice of Arrivals Restriction requiring U.S. passengers that have been in the Schengen Area to travel through select airports where the U.S. Government has implemented enhanced screening procedures.”

Sounds like the extra screening will only take place at certain airports.

For context - here is a partial transcript from the speech:

"And taking early intense action, we have seen dramatically fewer cases of the virus in the United States than are now present in Europe.

The European Union failed to take the same precautions and restrict travel from China and other hot spots. As a result, a large number of new clusters in the United States were seeded by travelers from Europe.

After consulting with our top government health professionals, I have decided to take several strong but necessary actions to protect the health and well being of all Americans.

To keep new cases from entering our shores, we will be suspending all travel from Europe to the United States for the next 30 days."

Interesting. I’m scheduled to leave for Heathrow Ok May 15 and return from Berlin Via Toronto to Dallas on June 7. As long as I’m allowed back in I don’t care about the extra screening

Horribly inconvenient. But I supported the office of the President during the last administration so I will suck it up and support the office of the President in this event too.

I wonder if this will affect crossing the southern border? Especially if your passport shows you flew from Paris to Mexico City before driving up to the border .......... hmmmmmm.

Actually if I had known about this I would been on a flight to Europe yesterday. Imagine calling the boss, 'sorry boss, they are making me take a month off in Budapest".

I almost bought my tickets today. The flight is 39 days off, so I might still do it. If it gets canceled then I get to rebook at that fare. The fares in June, July and August are quite a bit more expensive.... so its like pre-purchasing a discount.

According to the Associated Press: "DHS claried that the new travel restrictions would apply onto to most foreign nationals who have been in the "Schengen Area" at any point for 14 days prior to their scheduled arrival in the U.S.

The restrictions do not apply to U.S. citizens, permanent residents, immediate famioy of U.S. citizens or others identified in the proclamation signed by Trump."

So, only Schengen countries not all European countries.

Frank, I saw that, too. Guess the speech writers forgot to include that part on the teleprompter. That tidbit of information is s game changer...I leave for Geneva in about 20 hours and returning g from there in a week.

If you’re gonna make an earth shuddering announcement do you think he could have at least included all the facts???

Most Americans don't know what Schengen is. They know Europe.

I was on a tour last year with a woman from Texas. This was her third trip to Italy and she had been to other areas of Europe. When I brought up Schengen, she had never heard of it.

Even news report referring to Schengen are explaining what it is.

Now the State Department has put out a new advisory:

https://travel.state.gov/content/travel/en/traveladvisories/ea/travel-advisory-alert-global-level-3-health-advisory-issue.html

Global Level 3 Health Advisory – Reconsider Travel

The Department of State advises U.S. citizens to reconsider travel abroad due to the global impact of COVID-19. Many areas throughout the world are now experiencing COVID-19 outbreaks and taking action that may limit traveler mobility, including quarantines and border restrictions. Even countries, jurisdictions, or areas where cases have not been reported may restrict travel without notice.

Interesting the CDC website doesnt concur. They got caught flat footed i guess.

The story I am reading is that the speech said "Europe", but the order as published says "Schengen Area". Yet another person who doesn't know the difference, plenty of posts on this forum explaining the difference, if he had come here first. ☺

It is an obvious loophole. I foresee a boom for Heathrow Airport, and even more questions about how to transfer from an Easyjet flight into Gatwick to an intercontinental flight out of Heathrow.
And as the ban is "Schengen Area", you could also go via Ireland, Bulgaria, Romania, Serbia, Russia, . . . .

Wondering just how many flights there will be, or will airlines just suspend operations. I'd really like to hear the basis for the UK exemption.

All of the speculation here of the last couple of weeks has been overtaken by events.

This is the official DHS statement about the latest travel ban:

https://www.dhs.gov/news/2020/03/11/homeland-security-acting-secretary-chad-f-wolf-s-statement-presidential-proclamation

Also:
https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/proclamation-suspension-entry-immigrants-nonimmigrants-certain-additional-persons-pose-risk-transmitting-2019-novel-coronavirus/

It specifies ONLY foreign nationals traveling from Schengen countries only so yep, it doesn't cover all of Europe. Looks like the door is open to foreign-national travelers from continental Europe's non-Schengen countries, South America, North/Central America, Australia, New Zealand, large parts of Asia and Africa...

Looks like no issues shooting 18 holes at courses owned by.a certain American in the UK and Ireland.

I think it's unnecessary. It's a flu that feels more like a cold, not certain death. The media have whipped up panic and now governments (federal, state and local) have to respond. Since Katrina, the rule has been no response is too much. You're never questioned afterward on whether you did too much - only on if you did too little.

Like all flu outbreaks in the past, this will spread around the U.S. Like virtually every year, no one will remember it at all the next time we have a manufactured panic. Remember H1N1?

Remember H1N1 - very clearly.
Two major differences:
People around in 1968 often had cross immunity from the flu outbreak of that year, meaning that deaths among the elderly were far fewer than expected
Because it was an Influenza virus, and we are well used to producing these, by the end of 2009 we had a vaccine against "Swineflu"

I agree there is no point to the ban - Covid -19 is already established in the US - it was already there before the major increase in numbers in Italy in late February (by February 24th there were already 100 cases in the US - see CDC website)
Because of the delay in widespread testing, there has likely been major under reporting.

I will not disagree that the action is maybe an over-reaction, or perhaps better stated, not well thought out. The restrictions have many loopholes, basically CBP will ask "where have you been?" you should answer honestly (they are doing the same with China and Iran now, even if you are returning from Europe) and they make a decision for screening. But even in that case, if you said you were in China, you are screened and if you show no symptoms, on your way, do some kind of self quarantine.

Same with the new restrictions, maybe they have access to passports scans where failing to acknowledge you were in the Schengen zone would be caught, but if returning from the UK, and you hopped over to Paris or Rome for a few days, that likely would not be known unless you self-disclose. So self-disclose, wait for screening, maybe be directed to another airport for that.

If there is any benefit, it will limit the number of Foreign Nationals travelling, since they will not be admitted (well except for the list of exceptions), so a raw reduction in volume would have a resulting impact on transmission.

If anyone has a friend or relative arriving from a non-Schengen Area it would be interesting to know their airport experience.

I am taking a trip to Europe soon so I thought I had better read this proclamation thing and try and understand it. I will be purchasing the ticket today. Yup, still on sale despite whats going on. US to a non-Schengen Area city changing to a flight to Budapest. So I thought it best to actually read the proclamation banning flights to Europe.

Presidents Proclamation

Why. Most interesting is the "why". The President said, because the Schengen Area can not control its internal borders. So I suspect they realized that a ban on Italy where things are really, really bad would be impossible. It became an all or nothing proposition.

Subjects. The only people subject to the Proclamation are aliens and even then there are a dozen or more exceptions, such as Permanent Residents, wives and children of US citizens and Permanent Residents. No where are restrictions of, or enhanced screening, of US citizens addressed; but I suspect that the enhanced screening is covered by existing law.

Time Period. The proclamation does not put a time limit on the "ban" so his statement is a current assessment, and in his speech if you listened carefully he did make that point. So it could be 10 days or 30 days or 100 days.

Restricted Zone. In the speech is said Europe. In the Proclamation he used Schengen Area and then defined the states that would constitute that Area relative to the Proclamation. Given that a very few guys on the street would have any idea of what he was talking about if he had said Schengen, to say Europe is reasonable for a generalized statement of the situation. It is curious that the UK and Ireland are repeatedly mentioned in the press as "excluded", but they aren't in the area anyway. Not mentioned are the other exempt European countries such as Romania, Bulgaria, Croatia, Montenegro, Turkey, Moldova, and a half dozen other "European" countries. Sort of illustrates that the press is using the short-hand as the adinistration.

The Ban.

Section 1. Suspension and Limitation on Entry. The entry into the
United States, as immigrants or nonimmigrants, of all aliens who were
physically present within the Schengen Area during the 14-day period
preceding their entry or attempted entry into the United States is
hereby suspended and limited subject to section 2 of this
proclamation.

Flights from the Schengen area were not banned. Entry into the United States for aliens without first having been out of the Schengen Area for 14 days was banned. The result is/was the planes quit flying. But in theory you could charter a flight from Paris to NYC and fill it with 300 US Citizens and it would get to land.

Fine Print. Generally speaking a lot of latitude was given to various agencies to fine tune the thing.

So, what does this mean for me? I had planned to go to Budapest in late April, that would be after the presumed 30 day ban. While US citizens are not "banned" there probably wont be many flights out of the US to the Schengen Area in then next 30 days. Lets say I get there and after my two week trip, if the "ban" is still in effect, I cant see where I am prevented from coming home, although I may have to go through some sort of enhanced screening. Again, the problem may be finding a flight, but there are work arounds for that.

Oh, if I have any of this wrong please let me know. I will be planning a trip around it. THis is just my best understanding.

Paul, good points, but ...

maybe they have access to passports scans where failing to acknowledge
you were in the Schengen zone would be caught,

They do, and presumably, you would be.

but if returning from the UK, and you hopped over to Paris or Rome for
a few days, that likely would not be known unless you self-disclose.

No, the UK is not in the Schengen Area so you would have to go through passport control and that would create a paper trail.

I've seen a post or two laughing or poking people for not knowing the Schengen Area countries. I'm not surprised many don't know and I am not surprised when people overly generalize and say "Europe" because its the Europe that most of the US thinks about when they hear Europe.

The CDC for Coronavirus Europe website has listed the entire EU to Level 3. It lists all the countries. So they are asking for non essential travelers to not travel. It didn’t say for how long or post a date.
I was on the Spain embassy website which led me to the cdc Coronavirus Europe website.

The list doesn't look like the EU. It appears to be the Schengen Zone.

but if returning from the UK, and you hopped over to Paris or Rome for a few days, that likely would not be known unless you self-disclose.

No, the UK is not in the Schengen Area so you would have to go through passport control and that would create a paper trail.

It would create a paper trail (or electronic trail) in the Schengen Area, and until ETIAS comes in stamps in non-EU passports.
Would the US authorities have access to that, or check through passports for recent stamps? I doubt it.
I could fly today from Schengen-Switzeralnd to the UK (or get a train) and there would be no stamps on may passport; then fly tomorrow to the US. Would the US know I live in Switzerland?

but if returning from the UK, and you hopped over to Paris or Rome for
a few days, that likely would not be known unless you self-disclose...
No, the UK is not in the Schengen Area so you would have to go through passport control and that would create a paper trail

Perhaps, but I somehow do not believe that systems are so interconnected that a CBP employee at JFK has access to multiple countries systems to do a full check. Even within the Schengen Zone information between countries is not up to the point they want it to be, though they are getting close to having a unified system, and certainly China is not sharing data with CBP. They are still largely relying on first self-reporting, secondly flipping through a passport looking for stamps, and thirdly manifest information and reports submitted by the point of departure. That also completely leaves out cases of people with multiple passports or dual citizenship. The 15 to 20 seconds it took my wife and I to go through US immigration last week probably was not an extensive system search.

The list doesn't look like the EU. It appears to be the Schengen Zone.

Yes, as the formal DHS announcements state, it's Schengen countries.

Chris F, It is my understanding, and I may be incorrect, but that most countries contribute to a common data base when they scan your passport and at each entry when they scan your passport they can see where you have been. Dont know for certain its true, but would like to if anyone knows.

The "Schengen Area" sounds like a term from medical school, as in "avoid inserting objects into the Schengen area.