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Are DV visa holders allowed to travel in case of COVID travel ban or extend their visas?

mantler

mantler

Member
Hi All,
again we have some tough choices. We have visas expiring in 31 October. We purchased tickets to Boston to travel on 17th October. But what if COVID surges again and the borders are closed, are DV visa holders still permitted to enter or extend their visa validity, do you know how it was in 2020-2021 (I know about awful Trump travel ban, but I guess it was not related just to COVID)?
 
It's highly unlikely there would be a ban on immigrants again during this administration no matter what happens (more likely there would be restrictions have been on nonimmigrants who were in certain countries, and even that is unlikely), and that previous ban on immigrants did not ban people who already had immigrant visas.
 
The closure of borders last time was pre-vaccinations. There is no need to do the same again due to the level of herd immunity /less serious covid cases due to vaccinations. And anyway as noted, immigrant visa holders were exempt from the closure.
 
Thanks for your thoughts, not sure where I saw it, but during COVID I think travel was allowed to US for citizens and permanent residents, not for tourist visa holders, etc. So I was wondering if having DV visa is closer to tourist visa status (like no protection at all) or closer to LPR , since we are not LPR yet
 
Thanks, but if I understood this proclamation correctly, certain countries were blocked under Biden:
www.whitehouse.gov

A Proclamation on Suspension of Entry as Immigrants and Nonimmigrants of Certain Additional Persons Who Pose a Risk of Transmitting Coronavirus Disease 2019 | The White House

The national emergency caused by the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) outbreak in the United States continues to pose a grave threat to our health and
www.whitehouse.gov www.whitehouse.gov

And here is the similar one for Europe, UK, and others:
www.whitehouse.gov

A Proclamation on the Suspension of Entry as Immigrants and Non-Immigrants of Certain Additional Persons Who Pose a Risk of Transmitting Coronavirus Disease | The White House

The Federal Government must act swiftly and aggressively to combat coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). The national emergency caused by the
www.whitehouse.gov www.whitehouse.gov

I think the latter was lifted only in April, so it means there were at least three months, where immigrant visa holders couldn't enter US, so I am not 100% sure that situation can't repeat since in October there would be no chance of reissue (Sep 31 is the deadline for last visa issued).

One thing is probably one could travel to intermediate country which is not in the banned list and then travel to US after 14 days?
 
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There were several bans.

The "immigrant ban" banned entry as immigrants, issued by Trump in April 2020 and extended several times until revoked by Biden in February 2021. This ban did not apply to people who had immigrant visas valid on the effective date of the ban.

The "country-based bans" for China, Iran, the Schengen Area, UK and Ireland, Brazil, and South Africa, banned entry as immigrants and nonimmigrants (except permanent residents). These bans did apply to people who had immigrant visas. The Department of State issued a blanket waiver for immigrants and fiances in April 2021, and the subsequent country-based ban for India specifically only applied to nonimmigrants. These bans were all lifted in November 2021 and changed to a vaccination requirement. But in late November, they again added a new country-based ban for southern Africa that was lifted a month later. You are right that this last ban on southern Africa did apply to immigrants as well as nonimmigrants. It is unclear why, given that the Biden administration seemingly tried to not apply country-based bans to immigrants from April to November 2021, would suddenly do it for this later ban in November to December 2021. (And it's unclear whether the earlier waivers applied to this new ban.) In any case, you could get around the country-based bans by staying in a non-banned country for 14 days before coming to the US.
 
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