If you are flying to the United States after Tuesday, Nov. 3, you will have to sign a short health declaration before you board. Skip it and the airline will not let you on the plane. The rule applies whether the United States is your final stop or just a connection. A trip from San José to Madrid with a change of planes in Miami counts. So does a flight home to Toronto through Houston.
The requirement covers flights leaving at or after 11:59 p.m. Eastern Time on Nov. 3. That is 10:59 p.m. the same night in Costa Rica, so a late departure from Juan Santamaría or Liberia that evening could be among the first affected. The form asks one thing. You confirm that you have not been in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) during the 21 days before your flight. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) ordered it on Oct. 22 to keep travelers who may have been exposed to Ebola from bringing the virus into the country.
The 21-day window is the longest time Ebola can incubate before symptoms appear. Anyone who left the DRC more than three weeks ago is past the point of risk. Never having been near the DRC does not get you out of signing. Every passenger has to sign, whatever their nationality, including U.S. citizens and green card holders.
Your airline collects the form. The CDC lets airlines take it on paper or digitally, and is urging them to build it into online check-in and their apps. Expect to see it at check-in or at the gate at your last airport before the United States. If you are unsure how your airline will handle it, check its website or app before you leave for the airport.
Each traveler needs their own form, so one signature cannot cover a whole family. A parent or guardian signs for children under 18. A relative or companion can sign for someone with a disability who cannot sign. Read it before you tick the box. The CDC warns that knowingly giving false information is a federal crime that can bring fines and prison time. Changing planes at an airport in the DRC counts as having been in the country, even if you never left the aircraft.
The declaration is not a test or a vaccine requirement, and it does not replace your passport, visa or ESTA. It applies only to air travel, so crossing into the United States by land or arriving by sea is not covered. The form sits on top of restrictions already in place. Since May, anyone who has been in the DRC within the past 21 days has been barred from boarding flights to the United States, and that bar was extended to U.S. citizens in July. Foreign nationals recently in the DRC, Uganda or South Sudan are also blocked from entering.
The outbreak, caused by the Bundibugyo strain of Ebola, has killed about 4,700 people in Africa, according to the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention. The CDC says no cases linked to the outbreak have been reported in the United States and that the risk to the American public remains low.
The requirement is set to stay in place through Dec. 18 unless the CDC changes it sooner. That covers Thanksgiving and most of the December travel rush, so if you are flying north for the holidays, allow a few extra minutes at check-in.
