Waivers to the testing requirement may be granted by the CDC on an extremely limited basis when extraordinary emergency travel (like an emergency medical evacuation) must occur to preserve someone’s health and safety, and testing cannot be completed before travel. There are no waivers available for individuals who test positive for COVID-19.
Individuals – or air carriers seeking to allow boarding by potentially qualifying individuals – who believe they meet the criteria for a waiver can contact the nearest U.S. Embassy or Consulate during regular business hours at:
- U.S. Embassy Ottawa – OttawaACS@state.gov
- Consulate General Halifax – Halifax-ACS@state.gov
- Consulate General Quebec – QuebecACS@state.gov
- Consulate General Montreal – Montreal-ACS@state.gov
- Consulate General Toronto – TorontoPassport@state.gov
- Consulate General Calgary – Calgary_ACS@state.gov
- Consulate General Vancouver – VancouverACS@state.gov
For life and death emergencies outside of regular business hours, please contact the duty officer.
When requesting a waiver, you must provide the CDC-required information below. Once all of the information has been provided, the U.S. Embassy or Consulate will submit the request to the CDC for consideration.
The following information must be provided for each passenger:
- Name (family name/surname, given name), date of birth, passport number and country
- Cell phone number including country code of passenger or head of household if family unit
- Email address of passenger or head of household if family unit
- U.S. destination address?
- Is U.S. destination home address?
- Departure date
- Flight itinerary
- Name of submitting entity if different from passenger
- Name of company submitting on behalf of passenger(s) (if applicable)
- Name of point of contact submitting on behalf of passenger(s) (if applicable)
- Phone and email address for POC submitting waiver request on behalf of passenger(s) (if applicable)
- Purpose of travel to the U.S. (provide brief explanation of why urgent travel is needed and how travel will contribute to health and safety of passengers(s))
- Justification for testing waiver (e.g. no testing available, impact on health and safety)
- Documentation to support justification for test waiver, if available (e.g. medical records or orders for medical evacuation)
