New Covid19 travel ban on South Africa, U.K. and Brazil (Jan 24)

[Chauncey 138]

20 minutes ago, Theodora said:

I literally said "I agree", but I'm also not surprised of anything anymore 🤷🏻‍♀️ I'm past that point.

Right. And sorry I was kind of just talking not saying anything toward you :p. I just think old Joe needs to retire

[millefleur 5,035]

Maybe I'm missing something, but why is a 14 day quarantine required if you can just show a negative test now? Isn't requiring both overkill?

[Crazy Cat 39,213]

1 minute ago, millefleur said:

Maybe I'm missing something, but why is a 14 day quarantine required if you can just show a negative test now? Isn't requiring both overkill?

A reasonable, logical person might reach that conclusion, yes.

[yuna628 9,528]

13 minutes ago, millefleur said:

Maybe I'm missing something, but why is a 14 day quarantine required if you can just show a negative test now? Isn't requiring both overkill?

It may seem like overkill, however having a negative test doesn't prove anything. You could be asymptomatic or even symptomatic the very next day you have a negative result. That is unfortunate, as the tests are limited in what they can do, and some of them are very much inferior. I know several people that have had negatives from a rapid style test that were certainly symptomatic and very ill, one of them dying in the ICU. Because of the negative results some individuals have taken it as a sign of 100% clean bill of health and have taken risks, leading to family members being infected. There are several working theories as to why the false-negatives happen. Even PCRs are not foolproof and a false negative can happen for a variety of factors.

 

The CDC has always said if you have a risk of exposure, you should be quarantining yourself for the 14 days, as a negative on day one does not mean you will not be negative on day five. Incubation periods and all that are things people don't tend to think about in this context. It is additionally why, if you are ill, after recovery period and quarantine, the individual should be directed by their doctor to have several negative results over a period of days and not just a single negative result.

Edited January 25, 2021 by yuna628

[millefleur 5,035]

12 minutes ago, yuna628 said:

You could be asymptomatic or even symptomatic the very next day you have a negative result.

If the tests are so inconclusive, why are they being required then for travel? It's kind of maddening to make something that level untrustworthy a requirement. The 14 day quarantine on its own seemed like a better solution. If someone takes a taxi to the airport after getting a negative test, and the cab driver has asymptomatic Covid, then the passenger just got exposed (again) and now the whole risk period starts over. But because they got a negative test and waited 14 days, they're cleared to board a plane.

 

Also, if someone who was in Europe quarantines for 14 days in say Turkey, how is that even being enforced? It seems to me like it's just a waiting period before getting on a plane. For all we know, someone could be going out and visiting many places during that time, get a negative Covid test, board the plane and still be spreading Covid if the test was wrong. It seems like there's just no way to "track" this virus at all. I don't even see how it's realistically possible for someone to quarantine for 14 days in a country they aren't resident in...how will they get food? Just order room service every day? Or does "quarantine" here mean "wait and only go out while wearing a mask/interacting with as few people as possible"?

 

[Bjh 39]

20 hours ago, emma24 said:

So heartbreaking for those trying to get K1s. Embassies are using the ban as an excuse to not process. 

An excuse not to process AOS applications for those who entered the US months ago????

[usmsbow 795]

50 minutes ago, millefleur said:

If the tests are so inconclusive, why are they being required then for travel? It's kind of maddening to make something that level untrustworthy a requirement.  

 

Because they have to pretend they're doing something, and people take comfort in that. As you said, quarantine is a better solution but unless you're a well-run (and/or small) country like Singapore, NZ, Taiwan, or South Korea, it is very hard to implement and enforce. 

[Crazy Cat 39,213]

1 minute ago, Bjh said:

An excuse not to process AOS applications for those who entered the US months ago????

The process has slowed for everyone.  Some of us have been waiting 2 years for an ROC interview.

[HRQX 4,145]

56 minutes ago, millefleur said:

Also, if someone who was in Europe quarantines for 14 days in say Turkey, how is that even being enforced?

The previous COVID proclamations didn't even mention "quarantine." It just said those inside XYZ country/area in the previous 14 days cannot enter if not exempt. They said nothing about the traveler's activities inside the unrestricted country (e.g. Mexico, Serbia, Croatia, Turkey, Hong Kong, Macau, South Korea, etc.).

5 minutes ago, Bjh said:

An excuse not to process AOS applications for those who entered the US months ago????

The proclamations don't affect AOS. @emma24 still doesn't have K-1 visa: https://www.visajourney.com/timeline/profile.php?id=344601

Edited January 25, 2021 by HRQX

[millefleur 5,035]

1 minute ago, HRQX said:

The previous COVID proclamations didn't even mention "quarantine." It just said those inside XYZ country/area in the previous 14 days cannot enter. They said nothing about the traveler's activities inside the unrestricted country (e.g. Mexico, Serbia, Croatia, Turkey, Hong Kong, Macau, South Korea, etc.).

Oh, OK, so it really is more just a waiting period than a "quarantine". A waiting period I guess because Mexico, Serbia, Croatia, Turkey, etc are safer than the banned countries? Is this the logic behind it?

[Bjh 39]

9 minutes ago, Lucky Cat said:

The process has slowed for everyone.  Some of us have been waiting 2 years for an ROC interview.

Ah, that's what I'm expecting for the AOS interview. As long as my wife gets her EAD I think she will be ok for a while...

[Brookeandluuk 7]

Has there been any efforts as of late trying to get Fiances (K-1's) exempt from any bans? Or to bring the sorry situation of many people in this forum to the president's attention?

[usmsbow 795]

6 minutes ago, millefleur said:

Oh, OK, so it really is more just a waiting period than a "quarantine". A waiting period I guess because Mexico, Serbia, Croatia, Turkey, etc are safer than the banned countries? Is this the logic behind it?

 

I admire you trying to apply logic to this situation. There really isn't any. Sure, covid-19 isn't as bad in those 4 countries as some of the banned countries, and they don't have evidence of a new strain, but the Mexican and Turkish governments have basically put blinders on and have decided to ignore the problem (gotta keep the economy going, keep people coming to visit), so who knows what the true situation is in both those countries. 

[millefleur 5,035]

26 minutes ago, Brookeandluuk said:

Has there been any efforts as of late trying to get Fiances (K-1's) exempt from any bans? Or to bring the sorry situation of many people in this forum to the president's attention?

Check the numbers at your Embassy post from December 2020 and see if they're doing K-1's at all right now:

https://travel.state.gov/content/dam/visas/Statistics/Non-Immigrant-Statistics/MonthlyNIVIssuances/DECEMBER 2020 - NIV Issuances by Post and Visa Class.pdf

 

If you see that any were issued, email/contact the Embassy and specifically reference that report (include the link to the PDF even.) A VJ member waiting at the Moscow Embassy did that because 4 K-1's were issued in December, and the response they got was that they are still processing K-1's in "life or death" scenarios, but they have not yet resumed "routine services"....which may not exactly be the answer people want to hear, is still at least some glimmer of hope that something is being worked on and the Embassy is not completely shut down.

 

For people waiting on spousal visas, here's the December 2020 report for immigrant visas:

https://travel.state.gov/content/dam/visas/Statistics/Immigrant-Statistics/MonthlyIVIssuances/DECEMBER 2020 - IV Issuances by Post and Visa Class.pdf

 

 

Edited January 25, 2021 by millefleur

[yuna628 9,528]

1 hour ago, millefleur said:

If the tests are so inconclusive, why are they being required then for travel? It's kind of maddening to make something that level untrustworthy a requirement. The 14 day quarantine on its own seemed like a better solution. If someone takes a taxi to the airport after getting a negative test, and the cab driver has asymptomatic Covid, then the passenger just got exposed (again) and now the whole risk period starts over. But because they got a negative test and waited 14 days, they're cleared to board a plane.

 

Also, if someone who was in Europe quarantines for 14 days in say Turkey, how is that even being enforced? It seems to me like it's just a waiting period before getting on a plane. For all we know, someone could be going out and visiting many places during that time, get a negative Covid test, board the plane and still be spreading Covid if the test was wrong. It seems like there's just no way to "track" this virus at all. I don't even see how it's realistically possible for someone to quarantine for 14 days in a country they aren't resident in...how will they get food? Just order room service every day? Or does "quarantine" here mean "wait and only go out while wearing a mask/interacting with as few people as possible"?

 

I think... well having a negative test before flying is a good idea perhaps as a starting point, it is the best thing we've got at the moment. If I were going to travel myself though (though I wouldn't dare be traveling now anyway), I'd probably want to get several PCR negatives before getting on a plane and several after getting off and self-quarantining. Otherwise, yes I would agree we are trying to throw something at a wall and hope it sticks... hope it catches something anything out of desperation. The premise being something is better than nothing. How does one enforce a quarantine in this country? Not very well... certainly not like other countries have done. I absolutely agree the logistics of this don't make sense and would be hard to accomplish. What we all collectively need is robust vaccination programs, improved testing reliability, and something I wanted to see early on - greater mask availability. We simply don't have the time though.. it's too late. I personally know someone who was basically playing roulette with their lives and thought they were safe traveling regularly to party with friends in another state and thought that all their rapid negative tests before gathering meant something. One time was all it took and the whole group of 8 which then extended outwards to other contacts ended up in the hospital.