Due to the coronavirus pandemic, there are many entry bans and border closures. It is (still) difficult to predict when the borders will reopen.
Almost all countries have now imposed entry restrictions and bans for foreigners, including Austrian citizens, in March 2020 in connection with the Corona crisis.
INTERNATIONAL The most alarming example was probably the USA, which – without consulting its European partners – suddenly imposed an entry ban one evening on all Schengen Area countries except Great Britain and Ireland. But other countries also behaved unpredictably. For days, the official bodies of Sri Lanka and Kenya issued contradictory information, leaving it completely unclear whether entry was now permitted with a valid visa and only new visa applications were not being processed, or whether entry was generally impossible. Vietnamese bureaucracy was particularly inept. The website of the Vietnamese immigration authorities stated that visa-free entry for stays of up to 15 days was suspended for, for example, German, Italian, and British citizens, but in reality, visa applications for nationals of these countries were no longer being processed. The unbelievable thing was that Dutch nationals were still being granted visas, while visa applications from German citizens had already been put on hold, even though the Netherlands had far more registered coronavirus cases relative to its population than Germany at that time.
The basic principle for all these visas, ESTA , or eTA is that the travel authorization itself has not become invalid, but rather that the border authorities are denying entry despite the valid visa/ESTA/eTA. Every border control authority in the world reserves the right to refuse entry (even without giving a reason), even if travelers have a valid visa. This is precisely what is happening here, as the border guards of various countries are declaring travelers from other countries a health risk to their own populations.
The fact that visas are not invalidated, but only entry is temporarily prohibited, is most evident in the case of travel authorizations valid for (years) such as the ESTA, the eTA, or the one-year visas for India or Australia. The expectation is that German citizens with their existing visas/ESTAs/eTAs will be able to travel again as soon as the entry restrictions are lifted, although with the US under the Trump administration, we can never be entirely certain. Anyone wishing to transit through the US now (in March 2020) must not have been in the Schengen Area or the UK within the 14 days prior; otherwise, their ESTA will be invalidated. Therefore, one can return to Europe from an extended stay abroad with a transit through the US, but not travel from Europe to South or Central America with a transit through the US.
As of March 2020, it is unfortunately still difficult to predict how long the entry restrictions will remain in place. Australia has announced in recent days that it will close its borders provisionally for six months, although „provisionally“ could mean that the closure period may ultimately be shorter or longer than six months, depending on the assessment by Australian health authorities regarding how long the entry ban is still necessary to protect public health. Visas issued for Australia before the border closure could still be used afterward. – Advertisement –
