Because the Donald Trump-led administration continues its crackdown on visa and immigration, a brand new pilot program from the US State Division may herald bonds as much as $15,000 for sure vacationer and enterprise visas.
As per the discover issued by the Division of State, a 12-month lengthy visa bond pilot program is about to start throughout america. Below this, immigrants making use of for vacationer or enterprise B1, B2 visas from international locations with excessive visa overstay charges, could also be topic to a pilot program.
“Consular officers might require coated nonimmigrant visa candidates to publish a bond of as much as $15,000 as a situation of visa issuance, as decided by the consular officers,” reads the official discover within the federal register.
International locations which can be topic to those bonds can be introduced “no fewer than 15 days” earlier than the pilot program takes impact, which is, 15 days after the laws are printed within the Federal Register. This system will come into impact from August 20 onwards and can final for a minimum of a yr.
This transfer from the State Division comes after the initiative as first revealed over the past months of the primary Trump administration. Throughout his first time period as POTUS, Trump had floated the thought of utilizing bonds as a “diplomatic software” to make sure guests go away the US on time and don’t overstay their visa.
This pilot program, nevertheless, as per the State Division, was not applied because of the restrictions on journey imposed because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
“In gentle of the worldwide discount in world journey on account of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Division didn’t implement the pilot in 2020 and consequently it didn’t present any information on the feasibility for full implementation,” reads the official handout.
Trump admin visa crackdown continues
Earlier this yr, the Trump administration introduced a journey ban for sure international locations because of nationwide safety considerations, excessive through overstay charges and inadequate cooperation with US legislation enforcement.
The ban totally restricted entry from Afghanistan, Burma (Myanmar), Chad, Republic of the Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Haiti, Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, and Yemen, which have been recognized as ‘very excessive danger’ because of insufficient screening, terrorism ties, or lack of cooperation with US immigration enforcement.
Partial restrictions have been imposed on Burundi, Cuba, Laos, Sierra Leone, Togo, Turkmenistan, and Venezuela, limiting immigrant and nonimmigrant visas (B-1, B-2, B-1/B-2, F, M, J) because of excessive overstay charges or inadequate legislation enforcement collaboration.
