Foreign citizens seek US-approved shots as travel resumes

The United States is about to reopen to fully vaccinated foreign travelers

BUDAPEST, Hungary -- As COVID-19 ravaged Hungary in April, Budapest resident Akos Sipos received his second vaccine dose, believing he was doing the right thing for his own health and to help end the pandemic.

But Sipos, 46, soon discovered that the vaccine he received, Russia's Sputnik V, disqualified him from traveling to a number of other countries where it hadn't been approved. The nations include the United States, which is pushing forward with a new air travel policy that will make Sipos and many like him ineligible to enter.

“I thought it’s better to get Sputnik today than a Western vaccine at some uncertain future time," Sipos, who works as a search engine optimization specialist, said of his initial decision to receive the jab. "But I couldn’t have known at that time that I wouldn’t be able to travel with Sputnik.”

Starting Monday, the United States plans to reopen to foreign travelers who are fully vaccinated against the coronavirus. But there's a catch: non-immigrant adults need to have received vaccines authorized by the Food and Drug Administration or which received an emergency use listing from the World Health Organization.