US bans foreigners entry from Schengen

Overnight Trump has issued a Presidential Proclamation to restrict travel from Schengen nations.

 

Note: Schengen, not European Union. Brexit has nothing to do with this.

What seems to be causing significant confusion are the fact that Trump uses “Europe” and “European Union” fairly interchangeably when the main issue at heart is actually the Schengen Zone.

Therefore the following EU and non-EU countries are unaffected by the restriction, so long as your journey originates from here, and you have not been to an affected country in the last 14 days.

• United Kingdom
• Republic of Ireland
• Cyprus
• Bulgaria
• Romania
• Croatia

Which countries are affected?

The details aren't entirely clear! Although judging by the White House's tweet:

The travel restriction applies to foreign nationals who have been in 26 European countries with open borders agreements, in the last 14 days.
Those exempt from these restrictions, such as U.S. citizens, will be directed to limited airports where screening can take place.

— The White House 45 Archived (@WhiteHouse45) March 12, 2020

I am certain that if you are a US citizen, or immediate family member of a US citizen, or a permanent resident then you are not affected. This also implies that flights will still operate between the Schengen Zone and the United States, but obviously at a much reduced capacity if the only people who can fly are those who live in US. The current estimate for the travel restriction is 30 days starting midnight Friday 13th March 2020 (presumably Eastern Time).

However… it is currently unclear what restrictions are imposed for non-US citizens who are resident in the US with a non-permanent class of visa. I'll update this as I find out.

If you are not a US citizen AND you don't live in the US, if in the last 14 days you have been to any one of the 26 Schengen countries (Both EU and non-EU), then you will be blocked from entering the US:

• Austria,
• Belgium,
• Czechia (Czech Republic),
• Denmark,
• Estonia,
• Finland,
• France,
• Germany,
• Greece,
• Hungary,
• Iceland,
• Italy,
• Latvia,
• Liechtenstein,
• Lithuania,
• Luxembourg,
• Malta,
• The Netherlands,
• Norway,
• Poland,
• Portugal,
• Slovakia,
• Slovenia,
• Spain,
• Sweden,
• Switzerland.

By extension I would assume the travel restriction would affect these non-Schengen countries but in reality have few other possibilities to travel to US.

• Andorra
• Monaco
• San Marino
• Vatican City

Unresolved details

While we tried to present what we know, here is a list of important question we are still to find out:

• Whether the travel restriction extends to citizens of Schengen countries who live in other countries (our guess is: No)
• Whether travellers who are exempt from the travel restriction (US citizen and green card holders) but show symptoms of illness at Schengen airports are still allowed to fly. (our guess is: No)

Don't try to circumvent this!

This is obviously an unprecedented time in global aviation history, but one thing is for certain, you should not try to give any false declarations if you are attempting to travel to the US. Governments exchange information very swiftly between each other, and the consequences will catch up eventually.