Travel Alerts

Know how changes in the immigration environment may affect you if you’re traveling.

Travel Alerts and Warnings

Travel during the ongoing COVID pandemic can be risky.  Travel restrictions/bans, quarantines, and COVID vaccine requirements are possible. The U.S. Embassies and Consulates in some countries have also not yet resumed routine visa processing. If you choose to travel internationally, be prepared and plan ahead for possible delays and disruptions.  Regularly review our travel alerts information, as well as the other travel resources mentioned below.

If you decide to travel, be sure that you have the required documents for travel outside the U.S.  and check page 2 of your I-20  for a valid travel endorsement signature (the signature is valid for one year for enrolled students).

Non-immigrant air travelers to the United States must show proof of COVID-19 vaccination status prior to boarding an airplane to the U.S., with only limited exceptions. Review the CDC Air Travel to the US Requirements for additional details.

Please consider carefully your desire to travel internationally.

General Testing and Quarantine Requirements

COVID Vaccination requirements for international travelers ends May 11
  • In a May 1, 2023 statement, the Biden administration announced they will end the COVID-19 vaccine requirements at the end of the day on May 11.
  • The U.S.-Canada-Mexico COVID restrictions will cease to have effect as of 12:01 a.m. Eastern Daylight Time (EDT) on May 12, 2023, under a pair of Federal Register Notice to be published on May 10, 2023. Canada notice | Mexico notice.

For more details please refer to NAFSA's website.

Before Traveling

Effective November 8, 2021 all travelers to the U.S. will be required to be fully vaccinated with an approved U.S. FDA or WHO vaccine unless eligible for one of the few exceptions The previous regional COVID-19 travel restrictions were revoked after President Biden issued a new Presidential Proclamation; this proclamation also discontinued use of the National Interest Exception (NIE) waiver. 

The CDC order requiring vaccination also requires all travelers aged 2 years or older to travel with proof of a negative COVID-19 viral test result regardless of vaccination status. 

Additional information on testing requirements and determining if you are fully vaccinated according to Centers for Disease Control (CDC) guidelines is available on the CDC Testing for International Travelers webpage.