The U.S. Virgin Islands Department of Tourism is on a mission to educate travelers that the Territory is an American overseas territory, and as such, travel to St. Croix, St. John, St. Thomas or Water Island is within the United States’ domestic jurisdiction.
Though not part of the contiguous United States, travel to the USVI does not require a passport from U.S. citizens arriving from Puerto Rico or the U.S. mainland.
“We, too, are American,” reminded Commissioner Joseph Boschulte as he and his team work around the clock to clarify misunderstanding of recent Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) travel requirements related to the Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic for all air passengers arriving in the United States.
“The new requirements do not apply to persons traveling or returning directly from the U.S. Virgin Islands to the U.S. mainland,” he said. However, passengers traveling by air from St. Maarten or the British Virgin Islands, for example, are subject to the CDC’s three-day testing requirement “because they are coming from a foreign country and their first point of entry into the United States is either St. Thomas or St. Croix.”
“But if you are leaving St. Thomas or St. Croix and you are heading to or returning to the U.S. mainland, the U.S. Virgin Islands does not require passengers to test,” said the Commissioner, who explained that the USVI’s testing requirements are for domestic travel to the Territory, for example, from Miami to St. Croix, or from Dallas to St. Thomas.