Americans Can Travel To The EU From July 1: But Must Show Residency In One Of 14 ‘Safe’ Countries.
Even though the U.S. won’t be included on the ‘safe list’ for travel into the EU from 1 July, it is now clear that Americans can travel if they have residency in one of the ‘safe’ countries.
The EU today formalized the list of 14 countries which each member state should permit entry from 1 July: Algeria, Australia, Canada, Georgia, Japan, Montenegro, Morocco, New Zealand, Rwanda, Serbia, South Korea, Thailand, Tunisia, Uruguay.
China will be on the list of ‘safe’ countries if it confirms reciprocity, in that it allows EU citizens to enter China.
Residents of Andorra, Monaco, San Marino and the Vatican are considered as EU residents for the recommendation.
The decision is not legally binding and each country has the right to decide for itself, although any deviation from the guidelines would likely cause serious problems for the overall strategy. The list will be reviewed every two weeks.
The country of residence and not the passport is crucial
As reported by The New York Times, it is the travelers’ country of residence, and not their nationality, that will determine if they are eligible for travel to countries in the EU bloc.
Officials clarified that this means that Americans and other people from countries who are not on the list, but who are resident in ‘safe’ countries, should technically be able to travel into the EU zone, as of 1 July.
The U.K. is set to establish ‘air bridges’ from July 6
The U.K. was exempt from the decision because they are still technically part of the EU–many EU countries are hoping that EU/U.K. travel will begin again soon to allow EU countries to start to recoup some of its lost tourist revenue from British tourists.
Whilst American tourists make up a sizeable proportion of EU tourists, it is the British that have also been missed in terms of tourist revenue.
However, Britain still has a 14-day quarantine in place, meaning that anyone arriving must go to a pre-determined location and stay there for two weeks.
The U.K. is set to establish ‘air bridges’ from 6 July onwards, setting up quarantine-free travel between certain ‘safe’ countries.
All non-essential travel was halted on 16 March from all non-EU countries travelling into the EU zone. The EU zone also includes Iceland, Lichtenstein, Norway and Switzerland, because they are part of the passport-free Schengen zone.