In less than a week, the U.S. borders with Mexico and Canada will reopen to nonessential travel by fully vaccinated visitors for the first time in more than 19 months.
And federal officials expect wait times to enter the United States to get longer as a result. During a Tuesday press conference, Matthew Davies, executive director of CBP’s admissibility and passenger programs, was asked if the agency is planning to increase staffing to address those anticipated waits.
“There’s a constant balance at our ports of entry between enforcement of the numerous laws that we enforce and the facilitation of legitimate trade and travel,” he responded. “We are using our staff appropriately to address that balance, but we do anticipate that there will be wait times as travel increases.”
He later said that there would be “commensurate levels of staffing that we would have had pre-pandemic.”
To minimize waits, he encouraged non-citizen travelers to have digital or physical proof of vaccination, as well as all other necessary documentation, handy while crossing. As with new rules for international flights, he said that those younger than 18 years old who are accompanied by a fully vaccinated adult will also be exempted from vaccine requirements.
Accepted vaccines are limited to those that have been approved by the FDA or have an emergency use listing from the World Health Organization, according to a federal release. Currently that excludes millions in Mexico who have received the Sputnik or CanSino vaccines.
Additional details on the rules, as well as a link to frequently asked questions, can be found at https://www.dhs.gov/news/2021/10/29/fact-sheet-guidance-travelers-enter-us-land-ports-entry-and-ferry-terminals.
