B1/B2 Visa Entry

[mari5654265 0]

Hello, my mother needs to come to the USA to visit. She has a 10 year multi entry B1/B2 visa and she has visited the USA before. She is citizen of the Republic of Georgia (not a schengen country), no greencard, not US citizen. She will not be travelling via any country in Europe and has not been in any country like Iran, China, Europe and etc in the last 14 days. Is there a ban on entry into USA by anyone with a B1/B2 visa? Does she have to have some sort of specific reason to travel to USA for border patrol to let her enter?

 

Sorry just getting conflicting information from people and USA embassy won't answer any question. 

[SalishSea 18,125]

2 minutes ago, mari5654265 said:

Does she have to have some sort of specific reason to travel to USA for border patrol to let her enter?

No.  They don't care why she wants to come here.  They care that she will return home and not try to immigrate.

 

She needs to have demonstrable, strong ties to Georgia.

[mari5654265 0]

Thank you for the reply! So the ban is just on people coming or transit through these countries right?  https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/travelers/from-other-countries.html  

[Dashinka 24,767]

They will ask her the purpose of her visit which is a pretty standard question.  I also have heard that the CDC has dropped the 14 day self-quarantine recommendation.

 

Good Luck!

 

https://www.foxnews.com/health/cdc-drops-14-day-recommended-quarantine-travelers

[mari5654265 0]

Thank you! Something new every day

[igoyougoduke 1,675]

26 minutes ago, Dashinka said:

They will ask her the purpose of her visit which is a pretty standard question.  I also have heard that the CDC has dropped the 14 day self-quarantine recommendation.

 

Good Luck!

 

https://www.foxnews.com/health/cdc-drops-14-day-recommended-quarantine-travelers

dont think there was ever a 14 day quarantine by CDC. 

[Dashinka 24,767]

5 minutes ago, James120383 said:

dont think there was ever a 14 day quarantine by CDC. 

Nothing mandatory, just a recommendation.  Regardless it is a moot point now.

[Strawberrymermaid 346]

On 8/24/2020 at 1:14 PM, mari5654265 said:

Hello, my mother needs to come to the USA to visit. She has a 10 year multi entry B1/B2 visa and she has visited the USA before. She is citizen of the Republic of Georgia (not a schengen country), no greencard, not US citizen. She will not be travelling via any country in Europe and has not been in any country like Iran, China, Europe and etc in the last 14 days. Is there a ban on entry into USA by anyone with a B1/B2 visa? Does she have to have some sort of specific reason to travel to USA for border patrol to let her enter?

 

Sorry just getting conflicting information from people and USA embassy won't answer any question. 

So something strange happened to my fiances mom last week. She has a valid b1/b2 visa from Russia, but was not allowed to get on the plane from Moscow to JFK. The airline told her that the US embassy had contacted them and said that B1/B2 visas were not allowed to visit the US at this time. She has no idea why this happened as this is not the truth. Really strange.

[millefleur 5,047]

9 minutes ago, Strawberrymermaid said:

So something strange happened to my fiances mom last week. She has a valid b1/b2 visa from Russia, but was not allowed to get on the plane from Moscow to JFK. The airline told her that the US embassy had contacted them and said that B1/B2 visas were not allowed to visit the US at this time. She has no idea why this happened as this is not the truth. Really strange.

That's really weird....makes me wonder who else was even on the plane then? Do you know what airline she was flying?

[Strawberrymermaid 346]

25 minutes ago, millefleur said:

That's really weird....makes me wonder who else was even on the plane then? Do you know what airline she was flying?

I think it was Aeroflot. His whole family has been trying to understand what happened and why. There had to have been some other reason. She wrote to the Consulate to try to get an answer. The same thing happened with my fiance when he tried to board the flight in July, but his tourist visa was about to expire in like 15 days from the flight. Makes me wonder wth is going on. 

[millefleur 5,047]

58 minutes ago, Strawberrymermaid said:

I think it was Aeroflot. His whole family has been trying to understand what happened and why. There had to have been some other reason. She wrote to the Consulate to try to get an answer. The same thing happened with my fiance when he tried to board the flight in July, but his tourist visa was about to expire in like 15 days from the flight. Makes me wonder wth is going on. 

In your husband's case I can understand since his tourist visa was going to expire, but the other situation with the mother is really strange. I looked on the Aeroflot website (https://www.aeroflot.ru/ru-en/covid-19) and the said to check the IATA website for the latest info and this is what I found: https://www.iatatravelcentre.com/world.php

I also found this on the Embassy website, dated August 27, 2020, https://ru.usembassy.gov/covid-19-information/:

Quote

Travel to the U.S.

The Russian Government is now allowing regular international flights to resume, but only to destinations that have met benchmarks for containing the spread of COVID-19.  Aeroflot continues to have limited flights from Moscow to New York.  All land borders remain closed to passenger transport until further notice.

On April 9, 102 U.S. citizens and Lawful Permanent Residents departed Russia in route to the United States on a flight chartered by the U.S. Government.   

We are aware that there are U.S. citizens who were not able to take advantage of this flight.  While there are no plans currently for additional chartered flights, we continue to monitor various sources of information for updates on the availability of future commercial airline flights.  We will provide updates as we have further information.

I also found a Voice of America article in Russian (this is owned/operated by the US gov't so....hopefully a trustworthy source?)

https://www.golos-ameriki.ru/a/us-russia-travel-pandemic/5493066.html

 

That article basically says what everyone else is saying: if the person's nationality isn't in the list of banned countries, then it's up to CBP to decide if a person gets into the US. In other words, there shouldn't be a problem with boarding the plane. I also saw another article written by a lawyer where it literally says "The border between Russia and the USA is open" and thus direct flights shouldn't be an issue. So, I'm really baffled.

 

Back to the OP, I'm assuming it would be the same for Georgia. I don't see Georgia on the banned countries list, so as long as she isn't going via a banned country, in theory, she can enter on the B visa.

 

Edited August 28, 2020 by millefleur