Are there exemptions in place for when it is difficult to actually return to country of origin? (e.g. it remains very difficult to fly into China)
Are there exemptions in place for when it is difficult to actually return to country of origin? (e.g. it remains very difficult to fly into China)
We've got her booked on a flight at the end of October, which is the best we can do right now. There are flights to China that you can get tomorrow through Taiwan or Hong Kong, but neither will allow you to board if you aren't Taiwanese or from Hong Kong (so no mainlanders). The remaining direct flights are in very limited supply and very hard to get and/or very expensive.
The EU is currently debating exemptions for spouses who have been separated, so I doubt they have exemptions for students.
And even if the exemptions and all are sorted out, who thinks it's a great idea for a whole bunch of students to have to fly in what will now potentially be crowded planes, and then have to spend at least a couple of weeks in quarantine, for something that was not a choice of theirs at all.
Also, as if the rental/retail market wasn't bad enough, especially in college towns many of which are single industry towns, this is gonna add to even more completely unnecessary and avoidable hardship.
This is disastrous policy in every form, other than if youre someone who gets off on unnecessary cruelty.
Not saying that these changes aren't horrible, they are, but I don't think getting home is impossible. Very difficult, in most cases yes.
I always had the free version but the paid version will ping me every time a flight goes over me(my phone actually) and for a mere $6.99/month, I can find out the air traffic of the area. It’s an affordable hobby for covid. I highly recommend it.
I don’t know what it really means but just an observation.
There's ~375k Chinese students in the US. At one flight a week, it would take over 20 years for all to return home (to be fair, there's actually 4 flights a week I believe -- so merely 5 years). This is a de-facto blocking of citizens from returning.
And no, you can't just "wait" a month. As a sibling commenter noted, the best they could find were October tickets.
https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/fpdKM1iJBr0as6osJ2e0Tw
李慧早就决定回国,但是她两次订到的“便宜机票”,航班都被取消了。现在,她已经订不到低于4万元价格的机票了,有可能订到的机票,价格几乎都在“6万出头”。当然,这些机票都在一些黄牛手里,她身边不少想回国的中国留学生,都是通过黄牛高价订票。
Li Hui decided to return home long ago, but the "cheap tickets" she had booked twice had their flights cancelled. Now, she can't find any ticket with a price of less than 40,000 yuan. The tickets she might be able to book are almost all from 60,000 upwards. Of course, these tickets are in the hands of some scalpers. Many Chinese students around her who want to return to China are booking high-price tickets through scalpers.
Presumably, most students kicked out of the US would fly to their home countries where their status isn't "student".
> who thinks it's a great idea [...]
Most of Trump's voter base, sadly. Less immigrants in the U.S. is the only metric they care about.