October 9th Update
As always, we thank you for following our updates. Today's update supplements that of September 21st, in which we discussed managing expectations of quarantine, travel, and COVID protocols for onsite programs. Please reference that update at the bottom of this page. All of our updates can always be found by scrolling here.
We continue to plan for onsite programs to arrive in January. Whether we have students onsite is mostly out of our hands, and decisions made by institutional partners continue to have far-reaching consequences. We would love to see any participants who are unable to travel join our Virtual Learning and Cultural Exchange program, which can be taken either as a full semester or one of a number of credit options.
Key updates:
Morocco
Morocco is the primary reason for today's urgent update.
First: while there has not been a grand announcement and there may never be, visitors from most countries are welcome, per a number of requirements (see below). There has as yet been no resumption of something resembling commercial air travel. While we endorse neither routes nor airlines and have nothing to do with travel until participants hit the ground in Rabat, we can say that people traveling to and from Morocco have had the best luck transiting through New York City on Royal Air Maroc. We additionally caution that, at time of writing and based on peoples' experience, flights purchased online do not necessarily materialize into actual flights.
Second: in late 2019 and without warning, the process that had been in place for many years to extend US participants' visas beyond the 90 days granted upon arrival was discontinued, with no alternate process to replace it. A resolution was in the works when the pandemic hit, but has been delayed for obvious reasons. We anticipate this will be resolved soon, but at time of writing we cannot guarantee that visas can be extended for participants in the Area and Arabic Studies in Morocco and Regional Studies in French Programs. Given the hybridity now built into our programs, we will end onsite programming in Morocco for Area and Arabic Studies and Regional Studies in French on Wednesday, April 7, 2021 and finish the semester virtually. We will reduce housing fees accordingly and frontload excursions and activities as conditions permit. Participants must leave Morocco no later than the 89th day after their arrival in country, so we recommend departure by April 9th at the very latest. We will resume virtually on Monday, April 12th.
Jordan
As Jordan has continued to slowly emerge from its months-long lockdown, coronavirus cases have recently spiked with both community transmission and a recent deliberate increase in testing. At time of writing, the numbers appear quite shocking for many Jordanians; it's a small country with a small population, and the government's aggressive actions throughout 2020 have meant there has been no such spread of the virus until now. Jordan continues to respond with localized lockdowns, curfews, and temporary restrictions on schools, businesses, activities, etc. Temperature checks, masks, gloves, social distancing, and review of data from the COVID tracing/monitoring app on individual mobile phones are widespread requirements of day-to-day operations and for anyone not under lockdown to be out and about. As a new government is formed, Jordan's highly centralized response is expected to continue. No return to a total lockdown is anticipated, and visitors from most countries are welcome per a number of requirements (see below).
Important reminders:
Quarantine upon arrival: we require a 14-day hotel-based quarantine upon arrival for all participants, for which we will issue scholarships to cover the cost. AMIDEAST Education Abroad has only two fees - tuition and housing - and there is no additional cost to participants for this period of quarantine.
Late withdrawals without financial penalty: participants concerned they may ultimately have to withdraw from onsite programs may do so without financial penalty as long as we are informed of the withdrawal in writing by 5 p.m. EST on January 2nd 2021. This, of course, includes the confirmation deposit. Please see our Financial Policies document (which is our standard policy document and does not reflect the extraordinary circumstances of academic year 2020-2021) for instructions on how to withdraw.
Travel, testing, monitoring, and tracing: host country entry requirements and COVID-related regulations are fluid and subject to change. As we noted in our September 21st update (linked above), every country is different, and participants are going to need to monitor COVID-related updates via travel.state.gov very closely in the coming months while staying in touch with us.
AMIDEAST Education Abroad is not and has never been responsible for participants' pre-departure medical tasks, entry visas, nor for travel to and from host countries. We have the protocols, tools, and support to run onsite programs safely and effectively within a context of aggressive and centralized national coronavirus responses in our host countries. Participants will have a critical role to play in that, but also in keenly researching and planning their own travel, adhering to transit and host country entry requirements, tolerating a certain level of uncertainty, and having their good sense of humor at the ready.
All of our program brochures on our student application portal will have updated academic calendars and so forth by October 15. As always, please don't hesitate to be in touch with any questions or concerns: edabroad@amideast.org.
Preparing Now for Spring 21 in Jordan and Morocco: Coronavirus Tests, Quarantines on Arrival, and Masks
The situation in consideration of onsite spring semesters in our host countries remains fluid, and we remain optimistic of hosting students in-person again for the Area & Arabic Language Studies Programs in Jordan and Morocco.
Anyone following our updates the past several months knows that Jordan and Morocco have mounted aggressive, centralized responses to the novel coronavirus that causes COVID-19. These measures have limited the virus's spread and maintained the vitality of public health infrastructure. The impact on the economy of both countries, however, has been devastating. Jordan resumed regular commercial flights on September 8th with extensive coronavirus protocols, and while Morocco remains closed to foreign visitors through at least October 10th, we may expect a resumption of regular commercial flights in the weeks thereafter.
Unlike the United States, both countries have had across-the-board mandates regarding testing, quarantines, reporting, monitoring, tracing, treatment, social distancing, cleaning, and the wearing of masks (and gloves, in certain cases). AMIDEAST offices reopened during the summer and will continue to meet or exceed those mandates as in person operations continue to slowly resume. Per our updates, we have anticipated that testing and quarantines will be necessary to safely host students onsite again.
What university partners and prospective students need to know now to prepare:
1) Pre-departure testing and affirmations of whereabouts prior to travel
At time of writing, we know that negative results of PCR and/or serology tests within a certain window prior to check-in for flights and/or arrival in country will be required. Additional testing may be required upon arrival at the airport in country and may be at the traveler's expense. App-based or other monitoring of travelers' whereabouts within a certain window prior to travel may be required and may seem invasive to US Americans.
Every country is different and requirements may change between now and the program start in January. Please check the information for your host country at travel.state.gov regularly for updates, read that information carefully, and please stay in close communication with us.
As with any vaccines and other pre-departure medical tasks for which students are responsible in normal times, coronavirus testing certainly creates complications. For some participants, those complications may prove insurmountable, especially given the availability of testing where they may be prior to departure for Jordan or Morocco. That said, everyone can begin planning now.
2) Quarantine
Because AMIDEAST houses students primarily with host families and does not maintain student-only residences, all participants must live in hotel-based quarantine for 14 days upon arrival. AMIDEAST will cover the cost of quarantine through special scholarships for onsite students. There are no additional costs to participants beyond published tuition and housing fees for this period of quarantine upon arrival.
Quarantine does not alter the published academic calendar. AMIDEAST Education Abroad is now fully hybrid, and will conduct onsite orientation and the beginning of classes online using its LMS. Staff support will be available to students throughout quarantine, observing appropriate protocols.
3) Masks and gloves
Masks are required at all times indoors and out, except in private living spaces like homestays and hotel rooms. Jordan has additionally required latex gloves.
Masks and gloves have been widely available for purchase in country, and host country governments have provided them for free in many circumstances. That said, AMIDEAST would ask, out of consideration for the continued good health of supply chains and the general economic situation of host country communities, that participants coming from countries of the Global North bring their own supplies of masks and gloves with them. AMIDEAST and its partners for activities and excursions have hand sanitizer onsite, but do not have unlimited supplies of masks and/or gloves to provide program participants in perpetuity. We ask any participant for whom this poses hardship to reach out to us so that we can offer assistance.
As always, we thank you for your ongoing support. Please continue to email us at edabroad@amideast.org with questions and concerns. In the coming weeks, we will continue to provide updates on testing, quarantines, and masks, as well as other coronavirus-related protocols that were not the subject of this update.
