British Citizen travelling to USA with American Spouse over Christmas

We haven't seen my wife (US Citizen)'s family in NC for over a year and have cancelled many iterations of plans to go and see them throughout the course of this year due to Covid restrictions. We're obviously really desperate to see them (and them us).

We plan to go and see them in NC in December over the Christmas period. Can we?

<sup>Please do not read this as a naïve attempt to flout the rules for selfish interest;

we plan to self-isolate and check for symptoms before any kind of social contact with family and won't be doing any touristing of any kind, or eating out or shopping, etc.</sup>

Annoyingly all I can piece together about whether or not we can go from posts in this forum so far are little snippets of information that might or might not be true. Would like some clarification please!

Q1. "Essential travel" only. What's the exact definition?
Does this alone count for us: "Citizens and lawful permanent residents [and their spouses] returning to the United States."? If so does that stop us from leaving again a few weeks later on the return flight?
I also saw someone on this forum say something about an 'emotional support exclusion' - is that a thing or was it just a joke?
There was a recent death in the family but it is my father in law's cousin. Is that too tenuous to use?

Q2. Will a normal ESTA work for myself or will it be rejected? What's the process there? If the latter, will I have to navigate this with the airlines, with customs stateside, or both? We'll be taking our marriage certificate with us anyway, but is there anything else we'd need? I'm a bit terrified of being interrogated and then turned around after the long-haul and sent back to Britain without my wife!

Q3. Airports and Quarantine?
We're obviously trying to find the best and cheapest ways to get to NC via airports in states that don't require you to isolate on arrival. So far ATL (Georgia) or IAD (DC) seem to be the best shout for quarantine-less connections. Honestly I'm not impressed by how untrivial it is to find this information for each state and airport especially compared to how you can find all the UK government guidelines.
Might these rules change between now and Christmas?

Q4. Are there any other glaring obstacles we need to be aware of?
We've already cleared it with our workplaces here in the UK, we are fully prepared to self isolate when we come back too and we can work from home just fine. I also found some good travel insurance deals with Trawick International with specific Covid cover for the States (hope it's legit!).

^{I want to finally reiterate that if at any step of this there is a big risk of getting turned around or stuck in a cramped hotel room for 14 days, we'll simply not go. I just want to know the practicalities and possibilities. Can we do it?}

Thank you so much in advance.

Assuming we are out of lockdown at Christmas, you'll be able to travel.  During lockdown it cannot be for a holiday, which is why you are reading different things.  But you are talking about after lockdown, so you can holiday!

Q1.  Essential travel is the FOC.  If they are advising essential travel only, this is your insurance company's "get out of jail free card."  Meaning, they won't have to pay ANY claim - covid or not.  So yes, it's a big risk.  We've *all* had unexpected financial implications while travelling.  The insurance company will take your money but won't pay your claim.  There is a small chance you would find a policy that would cover travel while there is a FOC advisory in place.

Q2.  My understanding is that ESTA's are basically invalid at the moment, while the US travel bans are in place.  This means you need to get to the airport early, show your marriage certificate and children's birth certificates to be allowed to board the flight.  Unlikely you'll need it for the US side, more on the UK side.

Q3.  The rules change continuously and often without warning.  You can't count on anything at the moment.  Best to plan to stay somewhere (air bnb or hotel) for two weeks before mixing with anyone.  Brutal, but the only way to know your plans won't get messed up.

Q4.  Not that I know of.

Personally, my family in the US and my family in the UK are all staying put right now.  It sucks.  But it's not worth the risk for any of us.  Or the hassle.  Or the changing rules.  Or the cost.  Or the fear of something happening and being screwed for coverage.  It's not easy, but it's the choice we are all comfortable with.  You are allowed to do what you are comfortable with. 

Almost all states allow you to transit - you can land there and leave from there. In Mass. when we went through you could come and go onward in your trip as long as you were not staying overnight (24 hours). I'm thinking NY and NJ were the same at that time (late Aug, early Sept.)  Air/train/rental car, etc., connections were all allowed.  NY/NJ/CT regs have morphed somewhat for in-country travelers. Quarantine can be circumvented by testing instead. Not sure if that applies to people coming in from red zones overseas (and the UK is a red zone), as I haven't needed to check. The last I did see, none of the quarantining requirements were impacting anyone who was just transiting through.

Essential travel in the UK's definition tends to mean bona fide  business purposes (business that had to happen and could not happen via remote communications), for medical care, for shopping for food.  It's not that different here, from what I can see. It's not for going to visit relatives you haven't seen in ages because you miss them, unless one of them is on their death-bed.

I suggest you start at your destination state and work backwards. Find out what that state requires. NC doesn't seem to REQUIRE a lot. But they do recommend best practices.  https://www.nc.gov/covid-19/covid-19-travel-resources  You state you don't want to get stuck in a hotel room. If you are quarantining (best practice) at a private home, you'll need to be apart from everyone else anyway, so a hotel room is actually probably safer for anyone you could potentially infect by being in a private home. Remember that this disease is airborne and you can pick it up at home, on the way to the airport, at the airport, on the airplane, and the reverse and potentially never know you have it.

I believe you will be quarantining when you return, assuming the UK lets you leave in the first place. The rules can change in any of the locations at any time, depending on the need.

Now is not a good time for non-essential travel.

Yeah.  My brother and nephew have Covid and their other family members are going to work, food shopping, meeting people at restaurants, etc.  I’d never be allowed here - not to say people wouldn’t do it, just that at least you are breaking rules here if you do.

Q2. Will a normal ESTA work for myself or will it be rejected? What's the process there? If the latter, will I have to navigate this with the airlines, with customs stateside, or both? We'll be taking our marriage certificate with us anyway, but is there anything else we'd need? I'm a bit terrified of being interrogated and then turned around after the long-haul and sent back to Britain without my wife!

We went to the US in July.  At check-in at Heathrow we were put in a special queue and needed our marriage certificate.  If the British citizen is traveling without the US spouse, I'd have the photo/info pages from the US passport as well.  The United agent took about 10 minutes to validate us.  We thought this would smooth the way for US passport control. but that wasn't the case.

In Newark, Global Entry wasn't working, although that may have changed since the CDC has stopped screening.   My US passport was easily stamped in passport control.  Hubby was sent to secondary inspection.  He needed to show our marriage certificate and the photo/info pages from my passport.  The agent didn't ask for one, but we also brought a wedding picture.

We flew back separately and neither of us had any issues leaving the US.

As others have mentioned the rules are constantly evolving and vary by state, so be sure to stay abreast of them.

Best of luck to you.

Thanks each one of you for your clarification and advice. We've been talking a lot with our family both here and over there and have (like many of you!) come to the same conclusion - it feels rather irresponsible to travel this Christmas even if we could wangle a legit way through, given that cases and daily infection rates are at record highs for both countries right now.

Come on you vaccine!