COVID-19: Land travel bans with Canada and Mexico extended

The Department of Homeland Security will extend the bans on nonessential land travel across the U.S. borders with Canada and Mexico, according to Federal Register notices set to be published on Thursday, July 22.

Key Points:

• The U.S.’s land border restrictions will remain in effect until 11:59 p.m. EDT on Aug. 21.
• Only “essential travel” will be permitted through border crossings along the U.S.-Canada and U.S.-Mexico borders.
• The list of individuals engaging in “essential travel” includes:
  • U.S. citizens and lawful permanent residents (LPRs) returning to the U.S.
  • Individuals traveling for medical purposes, to attend educational institutions or for public health purposes.
  • Individuals traveling for work in the U.S. (e.g., agricultural workers), engaging in lawful cross-border trade (e.g., truck drivers transporting goods), or those traveling for a limited number of other reasons.
• The bans do not apply to air or sea travel, but do apply to passenger rail travel, passenger ferry travel and boat travel for pleasure.

Additional Information: The U.S.’s bans on nonessential travel across land borders from Canada and Mexico have been in place since March 2020 and subsequently extended for 30-day periods since then.

The Canadian government announced Monday that beginning Aug. 9 it would allow fully vaccinated U.S citizens and permanent residents to enter the country for non-essential travel. The U.S. will restrict land travel from Canada until at least Aug. 21, however.

This alert has been provided by the BAL U.S. Practice Group. For additional information, please contact berryapplemanleiden@balglobal.com.

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