With the reopening, Granter, 42, is looking
forward to regular weekend visits again,
and she plans a long trip to New York
around Christmastime.
“There were anguished nights, and it was so
hard,” she said.
For many, one of the most frustrating things
about the travel restrictions has been their
seemingly arbitrary nature, said Edward Alden,
a senior fellow with the Council on Foreign
Relations. The list of restricted countries doesn’t
necessarily match the places with the worst
COVID-19 outbreaks. And Alden sees no logic
in restricting land travel but not air travel in
North America.
“There was a lot of public anger,” he said. “Many
people were willing to accept restrictions, but
not the lack of rationale and logic, particularly for
couples and families separated for long periods.”
There were ways around the restrictions, but they
were often difficult and expensive. For instance,
the air travel ban didn’t restrict citizens of those
countries, but rather travel from those countries.
For Bárbara Feitoza of Brazil, that meant staying
for two weeks in Colombia, where she knew
no one and didn’t speak the language, so she
could travel to the U.S. to be with her boyfriend
in March. It was her first international trip, and
she said it was terrifying to fly at the height of
the pandemic.
The 28-year-old civil engineer from outside of
Rio de Janeiro was at work when she learned the
U.S. was preparing to drop its travel restrictions.
Feitoza said she was “euphoric,” jumping from
her seat as bewildered colleagues looked on.