In a significant move as part of its immigration enforcement strategy, the U.S. State Department has announced a pilot program requiring certain travelers to pay a bond of up to $15,000 to enter the United States.
The program, targeting B-1 business and B-2 tourism visa applicants, is set to commence on August 20 and will affect travelers from countries with historically high rates of visa overstays.
The details of the proposal were published in a temporary final rule in the Federal Register on August 5.
This initiative follows previous restrictions like a travel ban affecting nationals from 12 countries and the introduction of new fees for U.S. visitors.
The visa bond requirement is aimed at citizens from select nations known for high visa overstay occurrences, while visitors from Mexico, Canada, and over 40 countries participating in the U.S. Visa Waiver Program are exempted.
This Visa Waiver Program allows individuals to travel to the U.S. for tourism or business without needing a visa for short journeys lasting up to 90 days.
A visa bond functions as a financial guarantee for certain foreign nationals applying for temporary visas, ensuring compliance with the terms of their visa, particularly concerning the duration of their stay.
Each year, the U.S. issues thousands of temporary nonimmigrant visas for various purposes, including visits for business, tourism, or education.
Visa overstays occur when non-immigrants remain in the U.S. beyond their authorized period; though initially entering the country legally, they accumulate unlawful presence once their visas expire.
While many countries ask for proof of funds during visa applications, few implement a refundable bond system like that proposed by the U.S.
New Zealand previously had a similar requirement in place, but it has since been discontinued, while the United Kingdom’s attempt back in 2013 to enforce a visa bond on travelers from specific high-risk countries was ultimately abandoned.
The new U.S. visa bond proposal has three tiers of bond amounts: $5,000, $10,000, and $15,000.
According to the State Department, they anticipate that approximately 2,000 visa applicants will be required to post bonds during the 12-month pilot program.
If the average bond amount is projected to be around $10,000, this could result in an initial total expenditure of $20 million by applicants during this pilot phase.
The bond amount will be decided by consular officers, who will also evaluate an applicant’s individual circumstances, including travel purpose, employment, income, skills, and education.
In certain instances, consular officers may request waivers, such as for U.S. government employees or urgent humanitarian cases.
This concept has surfaced before; the Trump administration had attempted to initiate a similar visa bond program in 2020, but it never fully materialized due to a drastic drop in global travel caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.
Historically, the State Department’s guidance has discouraged the implementation of such a system as it has been considered cumbersome and prone to public misinterpretation.
However, the latest notice argues against this traditional perspective, asserting that this view has not been backed by recent practical examples or data, as the current framework does not typically include visa bonds.
The report highlights that the lack of matching departure data for numerous non-citizens who enter on visas indicates that there are hundreds of thousands of nonimmigrant visitors who do not leave the U.S. in accordance with their visa conditions.
As of August 5, the first two countries to be subjected to the visa bond requirement are Malawi and Zambia.
According to State Department spokesperson Tammy Bruce, nationals from these countries applying for B-1 and B-2 visas will need to post a bond of up to $15,000 as of the program’s start date.
The State Department also stated that additional countries may be added to this program based on their historical visa overstay rates, circumstances surrounding screening and vetting, or their involvement in Citizenship by Investment schemes.
Citizenship by Investment programs allow noncitizens to obtain citizenship by investing in the host country’s economy without residency prerequisites.
Countries such as Antigua & Barbuda, Austria, Jordan, St. Lucia, and Turkey have been identified as having such programs.
According to the Department of Homeland Security’s Overstay Report for fiscal year 2023, nations in Africa and others like Haiti, Laos, Myanmar, and Yemen recorded some of the highest overstay rates among travelers on B-1 and B-2 visas.
Many of the countries previously targeted by the Trump travel ban, including Chad and Eritrea, also exhibit high visa overstay rates.
The Department of Homeland Security estimated that out of 39 million expected departures for visa holders in fiscal year 2023, approximately 400,000 may have overstayed their visas.
This figure indicates that visa overstayers represent a substantial fraction of individuals living in the U.S. illegally, which significantly contributes to the growth of the unauthorized immigrant population.
Citing various reports, the Migration Policy Institute, a nonpartisan research organization, has suggested that a notable percentage of immigrants residing in the country without authorization are due to visa overstays.
Initial estimates derived from the Immigration and Naturalization Service around 2002 indicated that roughly 41% of individuals illegally in the country were visa overstayers.
Revised data by the INS in 2003 lowered the estimate to approximately 33% of the illegal immigrant population in 2000, while more recent studies have indicated figures as high as 42%.
However, tracking and identifying visa overstays remains complex, especially as the methods of entry and origins of border crossers have evolved over recent years.
As Jeffrey Passel, a senior demographer at the Pew Research Center, noted, existing estimation practices do not fully account for entry modes or the available data on those involved.
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