IU’s international students planning to enter the U.S. after Tuesday need to show a negative COVID-19 test result or prove they have recently recovered from COVID-19.
Air travelers must provide a negative test result before boarding flights traveling to the U.S. starting 12:01 a.m. Tuesday, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Related: [Read more Coronavirus coverage here]
Travelers must take the required coronavirus test and receive their results within the three calendar days before the departure of their international flight. If a flight is delayed, travelers may need to retake the test so it remains in that time frame, according to the CDC’s FAQ page.
The order was announced Jan. 12 and applies to both U.S. citizens and noncitizens. Vaccinated travelers are not exempt from the testing requirement. The purpose of the order is to slow the spread of the coronavirus, especially its highly-transmissible variants, according to the order.
Passengers must show a paper or electronic documentation of a laboratory viral test result before they board, according to the CDC. If a traveler tested positive for COVID-19 within 90 days of departure, they may bring their positive test result and clearance to travel from a healthcare provider, according to the order.
Rendy Schrader, senior director of international student and scholar programs and initiatives for IU’s Office of International Services, said the CDC’s latest order is unlikely to significantly impact new international students this semester.
Schrader said Friday is the arrival deadline for IU’s student visas. She said the majority of new international students will have arrived in compliance with their visas before the order will be in effect.
However, IU’s returning international students with valid documentation are allowed to arrive in the U.S. whenever they see fit. Those arriving after Tuesday may have travel plans affected by the new testing requirement, Schrader said.
IU junior Devanshi Goenka said she plans to arrive in the U.S. after the new CDC order is in effect Tuesday. She said it’s easy to get a viral test where she lives in Kolkata, India. She scheduled her test for two days before her flight, but she said she had to navigate many regulations.
“I know there’s been a lot of changes going on,” she said.
Like many international students, sophomore Jiacheng Li decided not to come to the U.S. this semester and is taking online classes in China. He said he decided to not come long before the latest CDC order. Booking direct flights to the U.S. has been difficult, he said, because of government policies limiting flights between the two countries.
“Also, it’s too dangerous,” he said. “The number of cases in China and the number of cases in the U.S. are just not on the same level.”
The COVID-19 pandemic has infected a total of 24,037,236 people in the U.S. and 99,414 in China as of Thursday, according to the World Health Organization’s COVID-19 Dashboard.
Editor’s note: Jiacheng Li’s interview was translated from Chinese.
