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22 minutes ago, HRQX said:

The part that makes it vague for me is "For purposes of this proclamation" part and then they didn't make a reference to the overseas territories that aren't actually part of Schengen.

Right? It is very confusing. At the same time, and further in the paragraphs, the proclamation provides that " Given the importance of protecting persons within the United States from the threat of this harmful communicable disease, I have determined that it is in the interests of the United States to take action to restrict and suspend the entry into the United States, as immigrants or nonimmigrants, of all aliens who were physically present within the Schengen Area during the 14-day period preceding their entry or attempted entry into the United States." 

Given that French overseas territories are not part of the Schengen Area/Agreement, by extension, my understanding is that they do not fall under the ban. 

Also, France plans to reopen tourism in French overseas territories as of July, at least for French nationals.They haven't announced anything yet regarding other nationalities but this could be interesting to follow!

19 minutes ago, Robin Redemsky said:

So if my fiancé is in England, he can travel to Croatia, stay for two weeks and then come to the US?

He can travel to Croatia but he needs to make sure beforehand he finds a flight to the US that is not transiting through the Schengen area. @zrdn2019 said that as of now,  "there is no way to get from Croatia to the US without transferring through Schengen area or UK."

4 hours ago, HRQX said:

@geowrian: does Schengen Area ban include overseas territories that aren't actually part of Schengen? Such as:

• Greenland
• Faroe Islands
• French Guiana
• Guadeloupe
• Martinique
• Mayotte
• Réunion
• French Polynesia
• Wallis and Futuna
• Saint Martin
• Saint Barthélemy
• Saint Pierre and Miquelon
• Aruba
• Curaçao
• Sint Maarten
• Caribbean Netherlands
• Svalbard

Schengen Area proclamation didn't differentiate:

The UK and Ireland proclamation did differentiate:

China proclamation also doesn't apply to HK and Macau:

 

I originally come from Reunion island and I confirm French overseas territories for their part are not part of the Schengen area. Actually I used to work in the French Immigration field (inbounds) and foreign nationals who want to travel to French overseas need to apply for a specific visa (not the regular Schengen visa). 

Here is a French source from the Senate : https://www.senat.fr/questions/base/1995/qSEQ950510986.html and another one from France-visa, the French government website for French visas: https://france-visas.gouv.fr/fr_FR/web/france-visas/competence-autorites-francaises

If you would like more source, I will be happy to share! 

Given that French overseas territories are not part of the Schengen area, I was assuming that they do not fall under the travel ban. (But not sure, so this could be an assumption...?) 

Was considering flying to Guadeloupe (because it is close to the US) and self-isolate during 14 days before entering the US, but I communicated with the local préfecture (local police) and I was told to get back to them after June 2nd because they were not sure when international flights from the island would resume. They were not even sure if end of June would be feasible. June 2nd is the day on which new measures should be implemented in Guadeloupe and I assume, in the other French overseas territories. 

On 5/22/2020 at 8:53 PM, zrdn2019 said:

Croatia is a very safe place for tourists across the board. But at this moment in time, there is no way to get from Croatia to the US without transferring through Schengen area or UK, which makes it a non-option. 

Hey,

For those who are still interested in going to Croatia, I received a reply from the Croatian Border Police (see attached).

Please be noted as @zrdn2019 said, as of now, there is no way to get from Croatia to the US without transferring through Schengen area or UK.

In any case and if you choose this route, good luck! 

28 minutes ago, JonSeattle said:

According to https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/#countries, Mexico had the 3rd largest number of COVID-19 deaths yesterday, after the US and Brazil. Travel from Brazil was just shut down.  You might end up being in Mexico with no place to go.

I have been following the news and saw that for Brazil as well! I agree that the number of COVID-19 deaths is important and relevant data, although it appears in the wording of the Proclamations that they seem to take the number of confirmed cases more into consideration: 

"As of May 23, 2020, the World Health Organization reported that the Federative Republic of Brazil had 310,087 confirmed cases of COVID-19, which is the third highest number of confirmed cases in the world." https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/proclamation-suspension-entry-immigrants-nonimmigrants-certain-additional-persons-pose-risk-transmitting-novel-coronavirus/

"The Schengen Area currently has the largest number of confirmed COVID-19 cases outside of the People’s Republic of China.  As of March 11, 2020, the number of cases in the 26 Schengen Area countries is 17,442, with 711 deaths, and shows high continuous growth in infection rates." https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/proclamation-suspension-entry-immigrants-nonimmigrants-certain-additional-persons-pose-risk-transmitting-2019-novel-coronavirus/

As of now, Mexico has "only" 68,620 confirmed cases vs. 374,898 in Brazil (as per https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/#countries). Definitely aware of the risks arising out of the growing numbers and thus, the high stakes e.g. ending up stuck in Mexico though. 

6 minutes ago, Sarah84 said:

When do you guys arrive in Mexico?

I will be arriving on the very same day (June 8 around 8PM local time ) due to the six-hour time difference between France and Mexico City! 

58 minutes ago, RD7712 said:

We will fly in June 4th, Thursday. I do not count that day. I counted 14 full days starting Friday, June 5th. My 14 days would end Thursday, June 18th. We fly out Friday, June 19th. That is how I counted my days. 

Same here! Flying June 8 (excluded that day) and counted 14 full days starting June 9 to then fly out on June 23. 

32 minutes ago, RD7712 said:

I would think going to visit family and friends could be considered a non-essential travel at this time. But if you show them your K1 visa and explain the visa is set to expire soon and you are going to quarantine for 14 days before entering the USA then it will be fine. As other members here already have experienced have your ticket to the USA handy to show as proof you are indeed travelling to the USA afterwards. Besides that on June 1st is when the country is trying to get back to somewhat normal level of business so the scrutiny should be minimized by officials. 

Thank you so much for your detailed comments, really appreciate. Already have my flight ticket to the US on June 23 so I should be good to go! 

1 minute ago, Kaatje said:

I think honesty goes a long way. And Ela was indeed also visiting family / friends.

 

 

 

 

I know she was  Thanks for sharing your thoughts, I agree! 

6 hours ago, Ela S. said:

No! they just asked me if I lived in Mexico and I said no, that I was only visiting family friends. 

In your opinion, do you think they could deny entry if we are not visiting family/friends in Mexico but only to self-quarantine ourselves before going to the US? Not sure how to formulate it at the POE...!

12 hours ago, ohohoho said:

There was a government announcement about it last week, some places with less infections were allowed to start already this past Monday. Hotel websites allow bookings from June 1, so does Airbnb and basically everyone I contacted about accommodation has told me no only from June 1.
 

But today, here they’re telling us places will start opening tomorrow, next week and from June. There’s allegedly quite a number of Americans quarantining from the virus in US. 
I personally think they’ve seen what a toll this has taken on the US economy and want to avoid the same route. You see a lot of places closed, restrictions in place, protective equipment and disinfection everywhere, but especially in the tourist dependent areas, I’m being told they can’t afford to keep it shut down for too long,m since the staff needs to work to buy food etc. If the tourists will be able to come back is another question.

Thank you SO much for the reassurance, I really appreciate it. Good luck for the rest of your journey! 

10 hours ago, Ela S. said:

I booked my hotel without an issue! Beverly Hotel is the one

Thank you so much Ela! Also made a reservation at the Beverly Hotel just to be on the safe side. Thank you thank you

9 minutes ago, ohohoho said:

It’s clearly not working. The flight we took yesterday also isn’t there and shows 0 results. But when you try to book (even on uk website) it gives you options for every day in June. 
 

As for accommodation in Mexico, from June 1, the hotels are allowed to open. For now, we only stayed one night in the Hilton airport (they required the flight itinerary for the reservation, other hotels told me just business) and flew next day to Puerto Vallarta where we’re renting a house. This also you can’t officially book online and I had to contact many owners via Airbnb and VRBO until I found someone that would take us in. A fellow passenger told me he’s staying in Mexico City in a hotel that pretends to be closed and has lights off in the lobby, so that they don’t get fined. Apparently a lot of things here work in a way that you have to tell them something and provide the right answers to check other boxes than tourism and nobody ever checks. Which is also true about their frequent temperature checks at the airport, they just need to see a green light on the thermometer and nobody cares it shows 33 degrees.

Wow. Thank you so much for your detailed experience, this is very helpful. Would you mind sharing the source of the information regarding hotels allowed to open from June 1? 

Again, thanks a lot! 

19 minutes ago, dannie xox said:

maybe it’s an IT error because i don’t see how a region difference should change a flight schedule. Super weird bc on mine it’s showing no flights the whole month of June so i can’t book anything 

Maybe an IT error! Don't know if this helps but maybe you can try seeing flights via Google Flights and then follow the booking links or directly check on Air France website (the French part of the Air France-KLM group)

2 minutes ago, dannie xox said:

 

Indeed that's super weird! I tried to follow your link and when filtering by route, 0 flight found either from AMS to MEX.

Is it because you are on klm.co.uk or would the website region be irrelevant in this case? I understand your confusion

13 minutes ago, dannie xox said:

i contacted them in regards to flights early june to begin with and they said about using the flight status checker and it shows there are no flights from Amsterdam to Mexico City the whole month on June. i’ve just double checked this and it’s still the same on the KLM website. 

They said it’s cargo flights and repatriation flights mainly that’ll be flying. 

Maybe these are considered to be repatriation flights but for now, the flight status checker includes a couple of flights from Amsterdam to Mexico City from beginning of June. 

https://www.klm.us/flight-status/flight-list?date=20200606&originAirportCode=AMS&destinationAirportCode=MEX

5 minutes ago, dannie xox said:

i contacted KLM and Luthsana, i don’t have a set date i can travel anytime, so i said to them asap and they couldn’t give me any in June at all which sucks. 

I booked my flights with Air France and KLM for beginning of June. I know seing the flights online does not mean they are available or we are able to take them (e.g. flights from Croatia to Mexico City via Istanbul) but I am confused, did they tell you flights to Mexico from June onwards are cancelled? 

I believe many of us have flights booked as of beginning of June. 

12 minutes ago, dannie xox said:

i’m trying to find flights from the U.K. to Mexico, i was looking at transiting through Amsterdam or Frankfurt but i’ve contacted the airline and there aren’t any flights, they’ve been cancelled to Mexico. how are you guys finding flights?

Which airline company did you contact and on what date are you planning to travel? 

4 minutes ago, Lskifghj said:

The Green Park Hotel in México is still taking reservations and it is in Polanco,- safe area. 

Thank you so much for your help, you have made and saved my day! I suppose this will be my safety net in case the other hotel near the airport is not taking "tourist" reservations either. 

2 minutes ago, talia0506 said:

Yeah I agree, who knows when Turkish will fly again. No one can tell

I hope that works out. Which hotel did you contact?

Thank you Talia! "City Express Ciudad de Mexico Aeropuerto" is the one that told me that for now, they can only accept business-related reservations. 

The one I sent an email to is "We Hotel Aeropuerto", very close to the airport as well. 

3 minutes ago, talia0506 said:

Yeah I heard that too. What about an Airbnb? 

I have sent an email to another hotel near the airport in Mexico City, explained the situation and let them know that the Mexican Immigration at the border considers our visit as "essential" by allowing us entering the country so maybe they could also make a favor by letting us book a reservation for 14 days? Let's see how this goes!

1 minute ago, talia0506 said:

when is your flight? do you guys think mexico is still safe since there are so many COVID cases. We are not sure if Croatia is safer, but mexico definitely has more flights going to the US

Thought of Croatia too but the flights from Mexico to the US somehow made me decide to choose Mexico over Croatia. 

My flight is on June 8 and I plan to stay at a hotel (with at least breakfast included) near the airport in Mexico City. I am starting to have second thoughts for Cancún though, mainly because apparently hotels in Mexico only accept reservations for "business"/professional-related reasons.....

3 hours ago, ohohoho said:

We flew in to Mexico City yesterday via Amsterdam. Nobody asked us anything at all, only in Mexico immigration they ask for the purpose of your visit. 
 

The flight was a terrible experience with all their corona restrictions and zero service, be prepared that for 11 hours (or more if connecting flight like we had) you get no food and limited drinks. On the short connecting flight you get a sandwich consisting of a dry bread with onion spread and a slice of cheese and a 86 ml cup of water. I had to fight with them to get another water for me and my son, he was thirsty and in the airport everything was closed and vending machine not working. I later asked if this will be the same on the long flight and the KLM staff told me they didn’t know so maybe I should buy drinks at the airport shops just to be safe that we have something. Thank god we did that. On the website they advise you to bring an empty water bottle and fill it after security, I strongly advise that now too! Amsterdam airport has food outlets closed except for few kiosks where you can buy some soft drinks and packaged sandwiches (like tank station kind of), that’s it, but shops like Hermes, jewellery, duty free and tulips are open. Upon boarding, you will find a plastic bag with two tangerines, two small cans of Diet Coke, two small bottles of water and some crackers, cookies and other junk. This is for the whole flight. You can get some more drinks from the galley if you want, but no service. Then after 5.5 hours they serve the whole airplane the same terrible pasta with a fanfare that they are giving you a hot meal. Hardly edible, but we were starving so ate at least some of it. Meanwhile you see flight attendants eating their boxes of food with clearly much much better food, talking to each other without masks and talking to passengers... and of course, playing on iPads, watching movies in empty business class seats and chatting. I really don’t know what difference would it make to operate as normal, I find it a bit alibistic from their side and just an unfair cost cutting measure since the tickets are crazy expensive and the plane was full. For me and my toddler this was frankly the worst part that I was not able to feed him anything decent and without any chance to even buy anything. Upon arrival in Mexico City everything is closed too, so not much help and since we’re flying onwards today and decided to overnight at the airport Hilton and it doesn’t even have room service at night, only daytime. So we’ve been starving 24 hours, but oh well, we’re here... 

 

Thank you so much for sharing your experience in detail with us! I will be flying with KLM as well with a layover in Amsterdam so this is very very helpful...

I am so sorry you had a terrible flight experience  at least you made it "safe and sound" to Mexico. Wishing you some good luck for the rest of your journey! 

Hello! 

I tried to make a reservation a hotel near the airport (City Express Ciudad de Mexico Aeropuerto) and when double checking with them over the phone, I was told that they could not take it given the current measures which limit reservations to "essential" ones. "Si no se presenta una carta especificando la actividad esencial, no podemos continuar su solicitud" is what they told me, meaning that we may be able to book online but once we arrive there, they will not be able to check one in. 

Is anyone already in Mexico, or who has already booked their reservation at a hotel faced the same issue? Were you able to book a hotel without any issue as such?  

19 hours ago, Ela S. said:

I MADE IT!!! POE was a breeze!!! Absolutely no problems traveling from Mexico into the US with a K1 visa!! Wow I’m so relieved right now it’s insane. What an adventure! I really hope all of you can make it into the US too!! I would definitely recommend traveling to Mexico! My POE was Charlotte btw, nearly empty. It was super fast  

Congrats Ela, I am so happy for both of you!!! And thank you so much for giving us some hope in these difficult times! 

17 hours ago, Lskifghj said:

Did you hear back?

Not yet. Will let you know once I have any update!