COVID TEST TO FLY BACK INTO THE US CLARIFIED

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Ken Kurtis

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As many of you know, I do a lot of travel, taking people scuba diving all over the world. I have a trip to Mexico in a couple of weeks. We get off the boat Sunday morning and will be given a COVID test. Most people are flying Sunday but three are flying Monday, so the question was: How long is the Sunday COVID test good for? The website says "no more than 1 day" but is that 24 hours or a calendar day? So . . .

I just got off the phone with the CDC and confirmed with them that the requirement for a negative COVID test "no more than 1 day before you travel by air into the United States" does NOT mean 24 hours but means on whatever day you get your test, it's valid for travel until 11:59PM the following day. So for our next-day threesome who are flying on Monday, the test you get on Sunday is valid through 11:59PM Monday.

Pass the word because it seems a lot of folks are reading "no more than 1 day" as 24 hours.
 
Thanks for posting that clarification. There is a lot of confusion in traveling TO some of the countries. You often see 72 hours and 3 days used in the same document for PCR test requirements. But from every one that I have seen clarification, it is typically the 3 days, not time specific, so if you are flying on Saturday, you can test any time Wednesday.
 
Thanks for posting that clarification. There is a lot of confusion in traveling TO some of the countries. You often see 72 hours and 3 days used in the same document for PCR test requirements. But from every one that I have seen clarification, it is typically the 3 days, not time specific, so if you are flying on Saturday, you can test any time Wednesday.
Thus is not my experience. Mostly, 24h means 24h, not just the previous day. The US entry rule is unusual.
 
I probably should have said was referring to two specific countries, Jamaica and Grenada. In some documents it states 72 hours prior to arrival, but in others it states 3 days. Based on my experience with both of these, the 3 days is rule.

For USVI, it was five days and their web page very specifically shows that it is not specifically time defined.
 
Yes! Thank you for posting this! I've had to correct MANY people on this. When flying to the US, your test can be any time in the day prior to your flight date, even if it exceeds 24 hours. This is directly from the CDC website:

"The 1-day period is 1 day before the flight’s departure. The Order uses a 1-day time frame instead of 24 hours to provide more flexibility to the air passenger and aircraft operator. By using a 1-day window, test acceptability does not depend on the time of the flight or the time of day that the test sample was taken.

For example, if your flight is at 1pm on a Friday, you could board with a negative test that was taken any time on the prior Thursday."
 
My flight back to US is on March 3, at 00:10. So the 1 day before is not much different than the 24 hours before.

I took the RT-PCR test today, March 1 at 16:00 together with my buddy who plan to fly back to his home in Singapore. The result will be available on March 2 by 16:00. We’ll see what happens tomorrow at checkin time of 22:00. If it’s not acceptable, then I hope they have Antigen test near the Phuket airport, otherwise at Dubai airport during the 6+ hours of transit.


4E2F45E2-B318-4CBD-B3B4-810D2EFFD433.jpeg
 
My flight back to US is on March 3, at 00:10. So the 1 day before is not much different than the 24 hours before.

I took the RT-PCR test today, March 1 at 16:00 together with my buddy who plan to fly back to his home in Singapore. The result will be available on March 2 by 16:00. We’ll see what happens tomorrow at checkin time of 22:00. If it’s not acceptable, then I hope they have Antigen test near the Phuket airport, otherwise at Dubai airport during the 6+ hours of transit.


View attachment 709835
Dan, for entry back into the USA on your itinerary, the US government considers the last flight before departure/arrival into the USA. Not your originating flight. In your case, your March 3rd flight from Dubai to Houston is the flight that counts. You can take a rapid antigen test any time on March 02.

I just went through all of this on my flight back to the USA from Egypt, which had a stopover in Germany. It was the Germany flight that set the timetable, not the first flight from Egypt, which happened to have been the day prior and would have made life even more difficult.

In your case, it doesn't seem to matter since your originating flight is also on March 03. Anyway, hope what I said helps others and that you can get a rapid test and results on the 2nd.
 
for entry back into the USA on your itinerary, the US government considers the last flight before departure/arrival into the USA. Not your originating flight. In your case, your March 3rd flight from Dubai to Houston is the flight that counts. You can take a rapid antigen test any time on March 02.

I just went through all of this on my flight back to the USA from Egypt, which had a stopover in Germany. It was the Germany flight that set the timetable, not the first flight from Egypt, which happened to have been the day prior and would have made life even more difficult.

In your case, it doesn't seem to matter since your originating flight is also on March 03. Anyway, hope what I said helps others and that you can get a rapid test and results on the 2nd.
Different countries have different rules!!!!
Change of flight(transit) could be troublesome:
1. Last flight before arrival.
2. Original departure.
3. Don't forget to calculate the time difference as well.

Read the small print.
 
Different countries have different rules!!!!
Change of flight(transit) could be troublesome:
1. Last flight before arrival.
2. Original departure.
3. Don't forget to calculate the time difference as well.

Read the small print.
I’m not talking about other countries. I’m talking about returning to the USA, which is the topic of the thread. All the best.
 
Ken, you are correct. I tested in Roatan on a Friday morning for a Saturday afternoon departure back to the US. My test results were accepted without qustion. Hopefully, the testing requirment will soon be dropped as omicron decreases.
 
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