priceycheese

Grant Schapps did his update in the last hour, and listed 12 countries on the green list (requiring no quarantine on arrival in UK). The US seems to be missing from that list, sigh. It doesn't seem like being fully vaccinated gets you a pass.

Who else is waiting for no quarantine before booking travel back to the UK?

https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-57026936

postbox134

All of us on various non-immigrant visas still can't travel - too high a risk that you can't get a NIE and get stuck back in the UK. Hopefully at some point soon (maybe G7) UK and US will update to no restrictions either way. Considering the level of vaccination of both.

tht

by missing do you mean the numbers don’t support it being added, or you mean it’s a typo?

https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/...vid-cases.html

classicmds

Yeah, I'm torn on this. I'm thinking about going back now, and enduring the testing/quarantining (as staying with family).... flights are cheaper now than later in summer, and it is probably still pretty quiet on the flight and at airports.... On the other hand, I suspect US will make it to green list sometime later this summer, and that would save both the quarantine and possibly the post-arrival tests (and their associated costs). There was even talk of a vaccine passport being trialed between UK and US.

Lion in Winter

Missing as it's just not on the list, period, whatever the reason.

Lion in Winter

I'm not sure. As a dual national I could travel, but would have to quarantine and take a billion expensive covid tests over the course of just a couple of weeks. I really want to see my son. May wait for the next announcement before deciding. They are supposed to be coming every three weeks now, starting next week.

Mercury39

Also waiting, was hoping that USA would make the list, mostly because there were rumours it might, but most of that was been fueled by the airlines putting pressure on the UK and USA to agree to open up. The covid positive rates in the US are still high, compared to the UK, so can see from the data why the USA didn't make the list yet. We shall all have to wait another three weeks for the next update. I had rolled the dice and have flights booked for late July, worse case I just change them as there is no fee for changes now, and it soon point I will actually get to go! I doing my bit to help BA with a loan, I'm ok with that for now!

destone

The list *seems* to be driven by current case loads as opposed to vaccination level.

Current case loads per 100,000:

• Portugal: 3
• Israel: <1
• Singapore: <1
• Australia: <1
• New Zealand: <1
• Brunei: <1
• Iceland: 1
• Gibraltar: 1
• Falkland Islands: 0
• Faroe Islands: 1
• South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands: 0
• St Helena, Tristan de Cunha, Ascension Island: 0

(The UK is 3 and US is 14.)

However, it's still fuzzy what countries make it onto the list and why. Many countries with 3 per 100,000 case counts (Saudi Arabia, South Africa, Thailand, Albania, Pakistan, Indonesia, Iceland, Egypt, Kenya, Morocco) did not make it. Politics?

A legit question is being raised though as to why the UK government does not mirror CDC guidelines when it comes to vaccinated passengers and quarantine. But that's a separate discussion altogether.

TexanScot

It's more the Presidential Proclamation that's the issue, rather than any quarantine on arrival.

I can deal with self-quarantining with family, but I cannot justify the additional time and expense involved in spending 14 days in a third country before returning to the UK, nor am I willing to gamble on obtaining an NIE from the US Embassy.

I'll be holding off until the summer, as hopefully things will be different by then.

Mercury39

Agree, that is the other complication for many, feel fortunate that don't have that problem as a dual citizen and am not restricted on entry into the USA. Fingers crossed for later in the summer.

Giantaxe

The problem with the US is that vaccination rates are very uneven between states. So you're likely to see community spread in parts of the US for some time to come and that's likely to keep the overall positive rate higher than what I presume the UK threshold for "greenlighting" is.

classicmds

Well, they're mostly (a) current British overseas territories (b) current commonwealth countries or (c) former colonies. Portugal has always been a close ally of Britain back to 18th century. Faroe Islands is geographically proximate. Iceland...not sure. I don't see that many of these are prime UK tourist destinations. Are people who were hoping to go to Benidorm now rebooking for the South Sandwich Islands?

classicmds

Yes, this is why I think it might be a better hope that US and UK do a vaccine passport rather than that UK puts US on greenlist. Vaccine passport might even be what is necessary to open up US-UK air bridge, given that uneven spread across US.

Pollyana

The US can have our spot.
Very nice of him to put Aus on the list, but as we have no chance in the next few years of actually being allowed to leave here, its a bit like salt in the wound.

tht

Iceland is on the list. My read on the list you posted would be more about if you trust their systems of control or monitoring and their own restrictions and policies.

Grant Shapps is a politician so you could say everything he does is politics. I would say adding the US before the stats supported it would be more political than not adding countries for which there is little “political” benefit in adding them.