Holidaymakers from Ireland have been unable to visit the United States since March 2020 - but that could soon be about to change.
Ireland is among the nations from where travel to America is currently restricted under rules introduced at the start of the Covid crisis.
However President Joe Biden's administration is currently planning to ease these rules and allow vaccinated tourists to travel from the EU and the UK, it has been reported.
The Financial Times reports that the changes are earmarked to take effect from November, with President Biden set to confirm the new rules on Monday.
It comes after widespread calls for the US to lift the ban, with the country coming under increased pressure from a broad array of officials on the matter.
Stavros Lambrinidis, the EU ambassador to the US, called for the ban to be lifted in a Tweet earlier this month.
He said: "70% of EU adults are now fully vaccinated. The US can safely let vaccinated Europeans in (with existing pre-flight testing), as the EU lets in vaccinated Americans.
"The travel ban seriously harms vital economic and human ties, at a time when they're most needed."
This message was endorsed by the Irish ambassador to the US Daniel Mulhall who said he "fully agreed" with Mr Lambrinidis that "banning fully vaccinated Europeans from entering America is damaging to EU-US relations in so many ways".
He said there are "many Irish people" who are "unable to visit family despite being fully vaccinated".
"I feel for them, separated from loved ones for up to two years now," he added on Twitter.
Mr Mulhall also said in another tweet that it is "hard to disagree" that “it is time to lift the travel ban on Europe and allow vaccinated travellers to come to the US”.
His comments were echoed by an Irish American Congressman this week when he urged the US government to abolish the travel ban in place for the EU.
Congressman Brendan Boyle was critical of the fact that the travel ban has been imposed on Irish and EU nationals for more than 500 days now.
He said it “makes no sense” and that vaccinated visitors and those who test negative for Covid-19 should be allowed to enter the US.
“The blanket ban on EU citizens coming to the US makes no sense, especially given many EU countries have higher COVID-19 vaccination rates and far fewer Covid-19 cases," he said on Twitter.
"As long as those wanting to come to the US test negative for Covid-19 and are vaccinated, they should be allowed in."
