Has Anyone Left Europe's Schengen Area for 14 Days to Then Enter USA?

[jvette 13]

3 hours ago, RD7712 said:

 

Don't loose hope. Things are changing everyday. You need to look at the Zagreb airport website everyday and get a sense of which flights are leaving for where. Countries and airlines are eager to get things going again. Turkey can be option for you, but they will need to open up. Turkish Air will have direct flights to the USA, they do not transit the EU Schengen area. They normally fly to Miami, Atlanta, New York and I think Washington DC. Look to see any news about them as destinations may change.

 

General question for the group here - what are your thoughts on CBP granting entry to people who've clearly found this "workaround" (I.e. go to non-schengen country for 14 days and then fly on to the US) and are essentially circumventing the ban?

 

From a technical/procedural standpoint, one could make the argument that it should be a simple YES -  as the individual would not have been in the Schengen area within the 14 days preceding their flight, and therefore should not be subject to the Schengen ban. 

 

On the other hand, I could see CBP calling out the fact that they've clearly tried to circumvent the ban (which after all, was put into place to prevent residents of Schengen countries from entering the US) and denying them entry for gaming the system. 

 

Would love to hear people's thoughts and opinions on this...and I guess we'll know more once Ela S. attempts entry in two weeks time. 

[goldhex 21]

2 hours ago, CarissaUSUK said:

My fiancé was able to make an appointment this morning (EST)! There were a few dates open at the Embassy in London in July.

Yep I managed to get one too! Can't have been long after I replied to your post either.. (typical)

[RD7712 143]

1 hour ago, jvette said:

 

General question for the group here - what are your thoughts on CBP granting entry to people who've clearly found this "workaround" (I.e. go to non-schengen country for 14 days and then fly on to the US) and are essentially circumventing the ban?

 

From a technical/procedural standpoint, one could make the argument that it should be a simple YES -  as the individual would not have been in the Schengen area within the 14 days preceding their flight, and therefore should not be subject to the Schengen ban. 

 

On the other hand, I could see CBP calling out the fact that they've clearly tried to circumvent the ban (which after all, was put into place to prevent residents of Schengen countries from entering the US) and denying them entry for gaming the system. 

 

Would love to hear people's thoughts and opinions on this...and I guess we'll know more once Ela S. attempts entry in two weeks time. 

According to Ela, she called the CBP in the POE she is planning to go and they told her she would be okay. I also called a CBP over a month ago over the same scenario and he did not tell me no. 

Edited May 5, 2020 by RD7712

[sl1pstream 551]

5 hours ago, jvette said:

On the other hand, I could see CBP calling out the fact that they've clearly tried to circumvent the ban (which after all, was put into place to prevent residents of Schengen countries from entering the US) and denying them entry for gaming the system. 

If it truly is a ban on location and not nationality, you're not circumventing the ban. You're just following the rules of the ban.

[jvette 13]

19 minutes ago, sl1pstream said:

If it truly is a ban on location and not nationality, you're not circumventing the ban. You're just following the rules of the ban.

I completely agree. Just trying to play devil’s advocate and understand if a CBP officer might choose to see it differently. 
 

In the meantime, I’m optimistic that the Schengen ban will be lifted sooner than later given that things are slowly starting to get better over there. Only time will tell though...

[sl1pstream 551]

1 minute ago, jvette said:

I completely agree. Just trying to play devil’s advocate and understand if a CBP officer might choose to see it differently. 
 

In the meantime, I’m optimistic that the Schengen ban will be lifted sooner than later given that things are slowly starting to get better over there. Only time will tell though...

I hope so, but considering that there's also a ban on foreign nationals entering the Schengen zone, I don't know. I feel like it won't end before the other one ends.

[jvette 13]

Just now, sl1pstream said:

I hope so, but considering that there's also a ban on foreign nationals entering the Schengen zone, I don't know. I feel like it won't end before the other one ends.

True, but the Schengen ban was put into place unilaterally without even consulting the EU, so I could see Trump choosing to lift it independent of whether they want to open to us. That would just mean EU citizens can come here, but we’d still not be able to travel to the EU. I sure hope that’s a possibility vs both parties waiting to lift the respective bans at the same time.

[sl1pstream 551]

3 minutes ago, jvette said:

True, but the Schengen ban was put into place unilaterally without even consulting the EU, so I could see Trump choosing to lift it independent of whether they want to open to us. That would just mean EU citizens can come here, but we’d still not be able to travel to the EU. I sure hope that’s a possibility vs both parties waiting to lift the respective bans at the same time.

I really hope so, but I guess we'll see.

 

The company I work for isn't doing well because of the current crisis and I really want to at least get my K1 interview before they go under so I don't have to look for another job for however long it'll take for the local embassy to start interviewing again. 😛

[Ela G. 389]

Quick update: Made it into Mexico!! It was not easy. I pretty much had to go through hell in both Madrid and Mexico. I will explain in detail tomorrow because I’ve been awake for 24h and I’m finally going to get some sleep now. I’m just excited and wanted to share the news. And the 2 week countdown begins now...

[Ela G. 389]

So I’m going to tell how the whole check-in, boarding and Immigration went. When I arrived to the KLM check-in desks in Madrid airport the lady asked me what I was going to do in Mexico City. I said I was going to visit a friend (which is true I guess because I’m staying with a family friend) and she said I can’t travel because that’s a “leisure” trip. I told her the borders in Mexico were open to tourism and she didn’t believe me and she kept saying “Well that could change in a day or even hours”. When I explained to her that I was traveling to the US from Mexico City she had me show her my K1 visa and the confirmation email for my flight to the US. She had me waiting about 20 minutes while she asked like 5 colleagues and researched it online because she clearly was clueless about the borders in Mexico (great professionalism). Finally after 20 minutes of literally thinking I was going to have to Uber back home she came back and told me I can go and gave me my boarding pass. I had to fill in a health questionnaire as well during check-in. When it was time to board there was again people asking everyone what they were doing in Mexico. This man didn’t want to let me board because (AGAIN) he was saying Mexico isn’t open for tourism. I then told him I wasn’t going for tourism and showed him my K1 visa on my passport and that I was just flying to the US from Mexico. I had to show him my flight to the US for him to let me board. When I finally sat on the plane I truly couldn’t believe it ahahah. When I landed in Amsterdam for my layover that was a breeze compared to Madrid. I got no questions asked during passport control besides “Where are you headed?”. Once I landed in Mexico City that was a whole different story. I waited in line for Immigration and I got sent for a secondary check. I told them what I was going to do this trip and it seemed like they knew about the “2 week” quarantine for europeans because I was actually not the only one coming for that purpose in my flight. He asked me if I intended to adjust status once I got to the US with my visa and I said “Uuhh.. I guess? but months later”. After all these questions I got sent into a room full of what seemed to be all the foreigners that were in my flight... We were mostly all from Europe. And I met this other Irish girl and British guy who were doing exactly like me. They both had work visas and were just traveling to Mexico to quarantine. We weren’t allowed to have our phones out and they made us fill a really long form about what we were going to do in Mexico and who we were staying with and what activities we were planning on doing. People from that room were getting called into an even smaller room for a short interview. And this wasn’t based on who arrived into the room first... This was based on how complex your case was... So I was freaking out a little because I was called in about 2 hours later. Once I went in I got told to sit down and this lady came and started asking me (again) what I was going to do here in Mexico so I explained to her that I was just staying at a friends house to quarantine and be able to fly to the US. I also told her my fiancé was coming on the 18th. She looked at my visa and asked me to show her my flight to the US. She then told me I could go back to the waiting room. About 5 minutes later I got called and I left the waiting room back into the immigration desk outside and a man stamped my passport and told me “Welcome to Mexico” and I honestly couldn’t believe it because I saw quite a few people getting refused entry. After that I went to get my baggage and left without any other problem. This wasn’t a pleasant experience at all especially when you’ve been awake for 24h and all that is going through your head is “Am I gonna have to sleep at the airport until I can get a flight back home?”. I’m just glad this is all over. Still got the hardest part though... which is entering the US. But after going through all this I’m not even scared anymore...

 

Note that the two other people who had work visas to enter the US were still in the waiting room when I left (and they actually arrived earlier than I did). I really hope they got into Mexico without a problem... I don’t know if having a K1 visa worked in my favor or not. That I will never know. But there shouldn’t be a difference hopefully.

[RD7712 143]

What a story! Glad you made it okay. You are very brave. I believe the hardest part was over,  but must have been a very anxious experience. I appreciate you relating the experience as we will be making a similar journey, unless things change in regard to travel soon. Are hotels still available for bookings there? If we go, would go to Mexico City. How is the Covid-19 situation there? What are the restrictions there?

[Xyrstine 224]

On 4/27/2020 at 10:09 AM, LeoUSA said:

I will try finding a flight that wont transit in EU but this is very hard tbh. But just in case i could not find one, aren’t spouses of US citizens exempted from that ban too?

Yes, the travel ban does not affect spouses. 

[Ela G. 389]

16 hours ago, RD7712 said:

What a story! Glad you made it okay. You are very brave. I believe the hardest part was over,  but must have been a very anxious experience. I appreciate you relating the experience as we will be making a similar journey, unless things change in regard to travel soon. Are hotels still available for bookings there? If we go, would go to Mexico City. How is the Covid-19 situation there? What are the restrictions there?

I see some are available on Booking from Mid-may onwards! I haven’t booked anything though. I know airbnb isn’t taking reservations for May but If you contact hosts privately you can arrange your stay outside the app. I know a girl who got her accommodation for Mexico city that way for May 12th. Social distancing measures are in place. Restaurants are only open for takeaway but some stores are open. Most people are wearing masks and keeping a distance. Not many people out and not as much traffic at all. I think Mexico is having around 1.4k new cases and less than 200 deaths a day. This week is supposed to be peak

[Kaatje 81]

16 hours ago, RD7712 said:

What a story! Glad you made it okay. You are very brave. I believe the hardest part was over,  but must have been a very anxious experience. I appreciate you relating the experience as we will be making a similar journey, unless things change in regard to travel soon. Are hotels still available for bookings there? If we go, would go to Mexico City. How is the Covid-19 situation there? What are the restrictions there?

I am looking for hotels in Cancun and many are available in june (also booking.com) Some hotels say there are extra measures because of Covid but are open 🙂

[RD7712 143]

3 hours ago, Kaatje said:

I am looking for hotels in Cancun and many are available in june (also booking.com) Some hotels say there are extra measures because of Covid but are open 🙂

Cancun sounds nice. Is it safe? It is not the usual tourist season. Many people may not be employed, times are hard.