The US State Department has announced that it will start requiring travelers from some nations to pay bonds of up to $15, 000 to enter the country as part of its immigration crackdown.
Beginning on August 20, the 12-month pilot program affects B-1 business and B-2 tourism visas. According to the department’s temporary final rule, which was made public on August 5 in the Federal Register, it targets travelers from nations with historically higher visa overstay rates. The money will be refunded if visitors follow the bond’s terms.
The State Department announced on Tuesday that visitors from Zambia and Malawi would be the first to be targeted by the new policy.
The rule follows a a travel ban for US citizens from 12 nations, and new fees are being levied on US visitors.
Citizens from nations with high visa overstays are targeted by the new rule. Visitors to the US Visa Waiver Program are not permitted to travel to Mexico, Canada, or any other more than 40 nations. Citizens are granted up to 90 days of visa-free travel to the US for business or tourism.
What else should you know about the proposal’s mechanics and its history.
A visa bond is what?
Some nations demand a financial guarantee from some foreigners applying for temporary visas to make sure visa holders adhere to the terms of their visa, particularly their stay duration.
The US provides visas to foreign students, tourists, and workers for thousands of temporary nonimmigrants annually. The duration of the visas ranges from a few weeks to several years.
A nonimmigrant stays in the US for longer than is permitted under the law as a visa overstay.
Most nations require visa applications for money, but don’t require visitors to post a refundable bond to enter. Prior to now, New Zealand had a visa bond policy to prevent overstays, but it is no longer in effect. A plan to impose a bond on visitors from some “high-risk” nations was attempted and later abandoned in the United Kingdom in 2013.
What is the bond size?
The proposed US bonds have three tiers: $5, 000, $10, 000 and $15, 000.
According to the State Department’s notice, the program will require the posting of visa bonds for about 2,000 applicants.
“If the average bond is $10, 000 (from options of $5, 000, $10, 000, and $15, 000), the initial cost to aliens of bonds for 2, 000 visa applicants will be $20, 000, 000”, , the notice said.
Consular officers will decide the bond amount, taking into account an applicant’s “personal circumstances,” including their travel, employment, income, skills, and education.
According to the department, in limited circumstances, such as when US government employees need to travel or when there are urgent humanitarian needs, consular officers will be able to request waivers.
Has anyone tried this before?
Due to a decline in global travel during the COVID-19 pandemic, Trump’s State Department attempted a visa bond program in 2020, but it was not fully implemented.
Consular officers were historically urged by State Department guidance because it was “cumbersome” and could lead to misperceptions in the eyes of the public, according to the State Department’s notice.
However, the department claimed that this view “is not supported by any recent examples or evidence,” not to mention that a 2020 pilot program that did not provide any meaningful data.
According to the notice, citing        , the number of noncitizens who arrived on a visa without having the matching departure data “demonstrates that hundreds of thousands of nonimmigrant visitors fail to timely depart in accordance with the terms of their visitor visa”.
Which nations would be impacted?
The State Department announced on August 5 that Malawi and Zambia would be the first two nations to be subject to visa bonds.
Nationals of Malawi and Zambia will be required to post a bond of up to $15, 000 as of August 20, according to Tammy Bruce, a State Department official.
Based on high visa overstay rates, where screening and vetting information are determined insufficient, or nations that offer citizenship through investment, additional nations that are subject to the bond program will be identified. The list, according to the department, could be changed throughout the program.
Citizenship by Investment programs, which essentially sell citizenship to noncitizens, require them to make an investment in the nation’s economy and do so without having to reside there. Antigua and Barbuda, Austria, Jordan, St. Lucia, and Turkiye are just a few of the nations that are participating in these programs.
Which nations require more visas than others?
According to a Department of Homeland Security Overstay Report, many African nations, as well as Haiti, Laos, Myanmar, and Yemen, had the highest overstay rates for visitors with B-1 and B-2 visas in fiscal year 2023.
Many of the 12 nations, including Chad and Eritrea, are also experiencing high rates of visa overstays, according to Trump’s travel ban.
What proportion of illegal immigrants enter the country on visas?
In its report to Congress, the DHS stated that it anticipated 39 million visa departures for holders in the fiscal year 2023. That year saw approximately 400, 000 visa overstays.
According to a report from the Migration Policy Institute, a non-partisan think tank, visa overstayers are reportedly responsible for a sizable portion of the country’s illegal migrant population.
The then-Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) estimated in 2002 that about 41% of illegal immigrants in the country are visa overstayers based on data from the 1990s. John Carter, Ted Cruz, and Marco Rubio all echoed that figure, which became the most frequently quoted figure.
According to the INS, 33 percent of the undocumented migrant population in 2000 had overstayed their visas after the INS reprocessed the data in 2003.
About 42 percent of the country’s population without proper documentation was overstayers, according to the Center for Migration Studies, a nonpartisan think tank that studies international migration in recent years. In 2024, the center cited this figure.
Source: Aljazeera
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