to lift the 15-month-old ban on travel from Europe and the United Kingdom after both began accepting American travelers, saying the lack of reciprocation hinders economic recovery and separates families.
The ban, instituted by President Trump near the start of the global Covid-19 pandemic, has hampered the operations of businesses that need European workers in the U.S., diplomats in Washington said. The EU earlier this month began permitting travel from the U.S. Americans can also visit the U.K. with stringent testing and quarantine rules.
“We raise this in every official meeting,” one European diplomat said.
Another diplomat said: “The current system is self-evidently unfair and is still based on the Covid situation of over a year ago.”
Additionally, tens of thousands of Europeans who hold visas to work or study in the U.S. and could travel despite the ban are unable to do so because of processing backlogs at U.S. embassies and consulates. Those already in the U.S. cannot visit their home countries because they cannot obtain the documents required to return.
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The Biden administration has said that it is following health officials’ guidance and hasn’t offered any details about a plan to reopen the borders to travelers from the EU and U.K.
“We have a working group with the European Union right now on this,” Secretary of State
Antony Blinken
told a German publication on Thursday. “I can’t put a date on it.”
In the meantime, European embassies in the U.S. have been flooded with appeals from citizens whose families have been separated for more than a year. Business groups and other associations have also pleaded for their employees and families to be allowed to enter the U.S.
“These people are indispensable for the management of thousands of companies, well beyond our membership, and are…