Canada reopens border to US visitors, United States maintaining similar restrictions

Canada lifted its prohibition on Americans crossing the border to shop, vacation, or visit on Monday while the United States is maintaining similar restrictions for Canadians, part of a bumpy return to normalcy from COVID-19 travel bans. U.S. citizens and legal residents must be both fully vaccinated and test negative for COVID-19 within three days to get across one of the world's longest and busiest land borders, and Canadian officials warn they won't sacrifice safety for shorter border waits. Travelers also must fill out a detailed application on the arriveCAN app before crossing.

On Monday morning, Lori Ramage waited for an hour and a half to enter Canada. She holds dual citizenship but her Canadian passport had expired. She was crossing for the first time in two years to see family. "So I'm going to just go and spend a couple of days with them. And I'm looking forward to a warm hug," she said.

Further down the line, Vincent Pao was driving a pickup truck hauling a trailer. He's crossing to settle his late aunt's estate, including bringing back her car. He had tried to enter previously but he said it was not deemed essential. He had traveled from Utah. "She passed away last year during covid, and this is the first time I'm actually able to get in."

The U.S.-Canada border has been closed to nonessential travel since March 2020 to try to slow the spread of the coronavirus. Across the border in the town of White Rock, British Columbia, businesses are happily expecting the return of Americans.

"We feel ecstatic and we're very, very excited to have our neighbors back. We've actually when the border opening was announced, we received many calls and the calls have been coming in and a lot of Americans are excited to see their family and close friends," said Sharan Sandhu, general manager of Ocean Promenade Hotel, which sits overlooking a bay.  "We had a huge American base. We were always very welcoming to our neighbors from down south. I would say about anywhere from 30 to 50 percent of our regular clients were from the US."

But for businesses on the American side that rely on Canadians, Monday was just a continuation of the long slog they've had to endure. Canadians would come to Blaine, Washington, to buy milk, gas and pick up shipments at the various parcel shops in town.

"I just hope that the US in return opens the border, at least partially for fully vaccinated people. I mean, the government's been good about helping small businesses, but we're unique because we rely on the Canadians and everybody else is opening. But we are not. We're kind of exempt. We just can't fully reopen until the border fully reopens," said Kelle Hagen, who owns Hagen's of Blaine, a parcel shop full of packages and boxes that Canadians haven't been able to pick up.

The U.S. has said it will extend its closure to all Canadians making nonessential trips until at least Aug. 21, which also applies to the Mexican border. But the Biden administration is beginning to make plans for a phased reopening. The main requirement would be that nearly all foreign visitors to the U.S. will have to be vaccinated against the coronavirus.