As expected, most Americans will be banned from the European Union when borders gradually re-open starting tomorrow. But the key metric will be residence, not passport. That’s a relief for many Americans living outside the USA.
Americans Banned From European Union; Who Is Allowed In The European Union Effective July 1, 2020?
Travel restrictions will be lifted for residents of the following nations:
- Algeria
- Australia
- Canada
- China*
- Georgia
- Japan
- Montenegro
- Morocco
- New Zealand
- Rwanda
- Serbia
- South Korea
- Thailand
- Tunisia
- Uruguay
*China’s travel restrictions will be lifted only if China lifts travel restrictions against Europeans.
Also, Andorra, Monaco, San Marino, and the Vatican are considered EU residents and Schengen associated countries (Iceland, Lichtenstein, Norway, Switzerland) are invited take part in this recommendation.
All other foreign residents will be banned with three exceptions:
- EU citizens and their family members (no matter their residence)
- long-term EU residents and their family members
- travelers with an essential function or need, as listed in the Recommendation.
In an earlier directive, the EU listed essential functions as:
- Healthcare professionals, health researchers, and elderly care professionals;
- Frontier workers
- Transport personnel engaged in haulage of goods and other transport staff to the extent necessary
- Diplomats, staff of international organizations, military personnel and humanitarian aid workers in the exercise of their functions
- Passengers in transit
- Passengers traveling for imperative family reasons
- Persons in need of international protection or for other humanitarian reasons
Whether you are admitted is up to the discretion of the passport control agent you encounter, unless you arrange written permission or a visa in advance.
What Is A “Resident”?
The restrictions are based upon residence rather than passport or where you might have been. So an American who spent a month in Japan would not be allowed in even though Japan has COVID-19 largely under control. But a Japanese citizen who just spent a month in New York or Florida would be allowed into the EU.
As unseemly as that outcome is, using residency as a bright-line rule makes sense to avoid greater confusion.
Under the new directive, a resident is not directly defined, but encompassed in the following guidance:
Third-country nationals who are long-term residents under the Long-term Residence Directive, persons deriving their right to reside from other EU Directives or national law or who hold national long-term visas, as well as their respective family members.
You’re not a resident of a country if you’ve visited for awhile. You’re a resident of a country if you are an official resident. For example, a Green Card holder in the United States or Aufenthaltstitel holder in the Germany is considered a resident. This is a card that is issued to you and can be used in place of a passport for most internal travel.
When my primary residence was in Germany, I held a residence permit (Aufenthaltstitel) that I presented with my passport every time I departed or arrived in Germany. It saved me over 100 passport stamps, since residences do not receive a stamp every time they arrive or depart.
EU Nations Can Create Their Own Rules, But…
While this directive is recommended for every EU nation, not every nation must adopt it. Greece, Italy, and Portugal, for example, are already allowing U.S. residents in under circumstances that are far less onerous than the EU-wide restrictions.
However, the EU warns that nations who choose to go their own way may encounter internal border controls until the pandemic is over.
The List Will Change Twice Per Month
Every two weeks the list will be re-evaluated, with countries added (or subtracted) based upon a number of conditions:
- New COVID-19 cases – are new cases close to or below the EU average?
- Trend – are new cases diminishing or at least flatlining?
- International Health Regulations (IHR) score – is country taking a holistic approach to tacking pandemic?
- Reciprocity
CONCLUSION
It is no surprise that most Americans will be excluded from Europe during summer. Today the EU clarified that residency, not necessarily passport, will be the determiner of which non-EU citizens are allowed in. For many Americans who reside aboard, that is good news.
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Re “So an American who spent a month in Japan would not be allowed in even though Japan has COVID-19 largely under control. But a Japanese citizen who just spent a month in New York or Florida would be allowed into the EU.”
This assumes these people aren’t residents of the country where they spent the last month. But I would guess that a lot of people have returned to their country of residence during this crisis because that is where they have health insurance coverage. Obviously not everyone but I would guess most.
I think you’re right. Those odd outcomes aside, the residency (versus passport) requirement makes sense to me.
Quite inaccurate your header: US Residents, not American Citizens banned from Europe. Quite contrary, because I am a US Resident and European Citizen, and I can go back to my country in Europe anytime. The ban is for US citizens who are also US residents
Or citizens of over 100+ countries who might be U.S. residents. I think (hope) the article made it clear. The point of the headline is that there were far too many headlines saying Americans were banned, which is not necessarily the case.
We get caught up on the ongoing failure by the White House to deal with this issue, What a total cluster. While a blunt approach by the EU it makes more sense to do this rather than letting US residents in. Big Sigh.
@Levy Flight – Just curious…What would you want the White House to do? Ease restrictions form Europe so they would reciprocate? Or are you talking more generally? I would ask the same question if you are talking more generally – what exactly should they be doing differently?
Not to answer for Levy Flight, but I have outlined my thoughts on your question here:
Want To Travel? Demand Accountability First…
So, a US resident (and US Citizen) with a Dutch passport as well (dual citizenship) will be allowed in as a dutch person? His wife (who only has US papers) will be allowed in too?
Correct. I plan to go to Germany next month riding on the coattails of my wife’s German passport, even tough we are currently both U.S. residents.
Please do let us know how that goes, yes? If you have any issues at the border.
I will. Sadly, the trip won’t be for at least a month.
But isn’t that exactly what they are trying to avoid? Your residency is in the U.S. Can you prove otherwise if they question?
Yes, but there is an exception for spouses (and “family”…an undefined term) of EU citizens. In this case, I clearly qualify if traveling with my wife or if my wife travels ahead of me and I am going to meet her.
Uh.. You know us Germans. The border agent might not take that “I’ll meet my wife” well…
We’ll likely travel together, but if not I’ll have all the documents lined up and I can speak German and still have an ID card.
I was so pissed this morning when seeing this. Not at the EU, but just really upset what this is going to cost my business because of ignorance in this country. I thought there would be exceptions for quarantines or some sort of loophole. I was thinking until a few hours ago that I could maybe quarantine in the UK for 14 days and then just take the EuroStar in to the EU and no one would care…just say I have been “living temporarily” in the UK if asked. While it might work, it’s risky as heck the more I dig in. And I could waste 14 days for nothing.
With Fauci projecting that we could be headed to 100K new cases a day in a week or two this ban could be around for months…or the entire year. This is devastating to my business.
At this point my only hope is that the EU eventually eases restrictions to allow for quarantine/testing on arrival. Or one of the countries goes rogue and does that on their own and I get in through there. The stipulations seem pretty clear though. And the U.S. in this case, along with Brazil, will be the last to gain entry.
My god, what a joke our country has become. This is no longer about European vacations. This will have huge affects for businesses on both sides. It’s a shame there was not at least some stipulations for business travel with the willingness to test and quarantine.
Agreed on all points.
It does appear there is a loophole through Italy and you could drive to Austria and likely evade a hard border if you drive at night. What a fascinating time we live in, and not in a good way…
@Matthew, I saw this as well from Joe Chivas in a different comment. And she sent a legit link to the application. However, I called today a friend of mine who was the past executive chef at the Italian Embassy in DC. (Ok, not the best source but it’s something!). He asked some people there and they said the special 72 hour business travel waiver is going away because of the new mandate. Whether this is true or not I don’t know. It’s Italy after all.
There is a part of me that wonders if, like most things, it’s not about the rules. It’s about how much you are willing to stretch them and take a chance. Like speeding.
I think even if you flew into Portugal and crossed through Spain and France into Germany, you’d make it.
It’s really fascinating. On another blog the comments tend to be completely focused on “THERE IS NO WAY IN AND STOP TRYING TO FIND LOOPHOLES!” With Europeans saying, “NEIN, DAS IST VERBOTEN!”
It seems you are a bit more hopeful of a reality of this to come into play. I agreed earlier but got shot down so much in comments I just lost hope.
I tend to think you could do it…but I’m not necessarily encouraging it, because I think it does contravene the spirit of the regulations.
Stuart:…”it’s Italy after all”.
Stuart, you have been all over the place, in this blog and others, your desire to enter the EU however seems not to be accompanied by the respect due to all EU countries. Well, we will not cry if you will not make it.
Carlo, you are correct. And I apologize. It was unnecessary.
Carlo, I know what you mean but… He does have a point 🙂
If you are willing to quarantine for 14 days in the UK, you can travel onward to Italy.
https://www.esteri.it/mae/en/ministero/normativaonline/decreto-iorestoacasa-domande-frequenti/focus-cittadini-italiani-in-rientro-dall-estero-e-cittadini-stranieri-in-italia.html
@cargocult. Thanks for that. I looked it over and yes, under #4, Section K, it states that
you can enter Italy from the U.K. without restrictions so long as you were not in any other country the previous 14 days. There is no mention of residency requirements.
“K) travelling from or to an EU or Schengen Member State, the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, Andorra, the Principality of Monaco, the Republic of San Marino, the Vatican City State, and did not stay in any other Country in the 14 days prior to traveling to Italy;”
Looks like “proven work” is still an exception Stuart, so you could avoid the UK’s 14 day quarantine by flying directly into Italy. They even give you 120 hours now, rather than just 72, to complete your work. I just hope your work isn’t “servicing clients” à la Karen Fisher.
Hey Joe, Yeah…I actually may end up “servicing clients” this fall if I don’t get in, lol! I asked a friend who was the former exec. chef at the Italian Embassy here in DC. He called over and they told him that “work” exception is no longer valid as of today. Of course, who knows…it’s chaotic. At least this other one (also questionable as to still being valid) does not have a 72 hour limit in country.
A good contact in Vienna I have is talking to the Ministry of the Interior tomorrow to see if he can wrangle me some sort of work exception for Austria. We will see how that goes.
Happy to hear this! I’m an American, but I’ve lived here in Canada for the past 15 years.
@Matthew, I’m an EU citizen resident in the U.S. who would like to head to Europe soon, but just to escape the madness here and enjoy the continent without millions of tourists — I don’t have a home or family there. Do you know what countries would allow me to enter without quarantine? FWIW, I had COVID-19 earlier this year, so I’m not worried about posing a threat to public health in the EU.
James, good question – I don’t know the answer to that, though more and more airports are setting up COVID-19 checkpoints at airports. Probably if you were able to take a test with negative results, in FRA for example, you could go on your happy way with papers to avoid a quarantine.
But I’m just speculating…
That’s the problem with all of this. There seems to be no clarity. In such cases, my experience with visas and entrance to 139 countries around the world, is that it’s usually easier to get into a country than the rules say.
Well, I think it residence vs passport makes no real sense either. As mentioned in the example in the post. If a Japanese citizen comes to the US for a week, or a month, or even a year and then continues on to the EU, he will be allowed in. Even tho he is at higher risk of transmitting it because of the case load in the US. Assuming everything stays the same as it is in the moment. We all hope of course cases go down worldwide.
I am a EU citizen, but life in the US. I have been here on a work visa for many years, but no green card, so I am no a resident. The problem for me is, I can go to Europe, but with the current blocks of entering the US, I can’t come back. Only residents (green card holders) and citizen are allowed back, but since I am on a work visa, I cant come back. I live in the US, I have my health insurance in the US (not in the EU). That makes no sense either. And in general, the US should open their borders to the EU. Because the have more to worry about their own people spreading it in the country, than EU travelers brining more cases in. The whole deal is a mess. EU should on the other hand require, people who were in the last 14 days in the US are not allowed to enter the EU, except for the usual exemptions (EU citzisen, resident permit,) but for example no one else. Like in our example the Japanese Tourist coming to the US, staying here for 3 months and than continuing on to the EU. I don’t know how likely such a scenario is, but this is more just like putting out some rules to say we tried instead of doing nothing. So nobody can blame the government. I know, this is not an easy situation.
You’re in a tough spot, Peter. Best wishes to you.
I hope this means US troops stationed in EU countries will be coming home now, since Americans are obviously not welcome, while they plan to give access to China, who started all this, lied, covered it up, and continue to lie about their stats (one study estimated they are underreporting by a factor of 40)
Total bummer that the Donald thread on Reddit got shut down, seems like your natural habitat
I think Americans stationed in Germany are protected and as special German residents, are free to come and go.
Well see, that’s the difference and reason to the growing pandemic problems in the US.
You can do it based on science and case numbers (although the Chinese numbers should be taken with at least some skepticism), or you can do it based on politics.
The press keeps reporting how poorly the US has handled the pandemic, and it certainly could have done better, but the only major European country to have fewer deaths per capita than the US is Germany. Nominal over proportional. Whatever makes Trump look worst (but not Cuomo, of course)! What does it matter than the US has the third largest population in the world?
COVID-19 deaths per million as of June 30, 2020
1. Belgium – 852.03
2. United Kingdom – 655.37
3. Spain -606.67
4. Italy – 574.93
5. Sweden – 521.45
6. France – 444.11
7. USA – 385.05
8. Ireland – 357.47
9. Netherlands – 354.42
23. Germany – 108.24
(I don’t count Ireland or Netherlands as “major.” Their death rates are pretty close to the US’s anyway.)
https://www.statista.com/statistics/1104709/coronavirus-deaths-worldwide-per-million-inhabitants/
Cargo, fair point. Although all of those countries have a very limited spread right now while the US is on a surge. That’s the reason for holding up the ban.
People forget that the stated plan for lockdown was to flatten the curve, not eliminate the virus. Trying to keep everyone locked up for an extended period was an error based on politics, not science. What should have been done was hardening vulnerable points like nursing homes, prisons and slaughterhouses (people really shouldn’t be eating meat anyway as that is the source of almost all the new infectious diseases in recent history). The young and healthy should have been allowed to go about and get infected as the threat to them is almost nil. We don’t go crazy when there is a nasty flu going around. Herd immunity will only come with a sufficient portion of the population being infected or vaccinated, and there is no guarantee a vaccine will work. There is no vaccine for the common cold and the flu vaccines are far from 100% effective.
Deaths don’t really matter when one is concerned about triggering a new round of infections. We know the majority of European deaths were of the already ill elderly (over 80). Now infections among Americans are primarily among those under 50. They may not die but do jam hospitals and disrupt the health care system. The EU doesn’t want US residents (or those from other countries still trying to control outbreaks) to enter and possibly be carriers who with cause a new bought of infections that will strain their health care facilities and impact the economy. The US rate is 100x the current daily average of EU countries…that says it all!
Not all countries report the exact numbers, like for example the UK reports death from ALL settings with everyone that died with a positive test is reported, so you can’t really count on the numbers of death.
Second the EU countries new positive figures are on the way down while in the US the numbers are going up.
Third some scientists say that the reason why in Europe there were more death then in other countries in the world, is because they have much more care homes.
So you have to look on quite a few things before matching numbers.
This is beside the fact that the US has a population of over 300 million.
I am reading that transit passengers are allowed, correct?
I want to make sure I interpret correct?
Yes, transit has been allowed even prior to this announcement. Most lounges are closed.
My daughter (US Citizen) has been attending an Italian school for 3 years. She has lived in Florence each year from October through June, returning to US in the summers. This March she came back to the US during the COVID crisis in Italy. She had applied for the Permesso di Soggiorno, but was unable to pick it up in Italy before she came back to the US because the offices were closed. Do you think she will be readmitted to complete her 4th year of school?
In short, yes. Has the school been helpful?
Thank you! The school has not been helpful at all. LOL
Caroline, I just spent yesterday afternoon trying to get a Visa D for myself (in my case Austria, which would get me in and falls under the same parameters as your daughter for school). The problem is that most all processing centers in the U.S. (either contracted companies like VFS or the consulates directly) are not processing them at this time because of, ironically, the surge of cases in the U.S. and the unwillingness to reopen visa processing centers. This was also the case for Germany, Czech and others I looked at.
Italy MIGHT be processing them. The website and application are messy though so you should maybe call the DC Consulate directly to see what they are doing. It says nothing about *no longer processing Visa requests* as the other websites do, but I don’t trust this entirely. At least they might be able to give you some alternative.
Good luck. But it seems the EU is doing a great job at closing all the potential gaps and making it really hard. Trump wanted his WALL and, well, he got it in a way….the world is building one around us.
So Sweden is part of the EU, but has really high covid cases still I believe, but Swedish citizens will be able to travel Europe. Also, I read a week or two ago their neighbors didn’t want to open their borders to Sweden. Am I missing something.
Sweden ban has been extended until 07 July.
Anyone who doesn’t see this is at least partial politically motivated is being willfully blind. See @cargocult’s stats above.
I have no idea what you are talking about. 16 infections per 100,000 citizens per 7 days doesn’t seem a political measurement. And @cargocult’s stats have nothing to do with the current situation.
always make it political and of course TRUMP’S FAULT,..What a bunch of liberal left sided brainwashed!!!
It is his fault. And why I am now calling it the “Trump Virus.” Enjoy the irony.