The US State Department said Monday some visa applicants will soon be required to pay bonds of up to $15,000 to discourage visa overstays as part of the Trump administration’s crackdown on migration.
Starting later this month, the pilot program will require applicants from certain countries to pay a sum of “no less than $5,000” as collateral for the issuance of their visa, with the funds returned if they comply with the terms of their stay or forfeited if they remain past the deadline.
“Consular officers may require covered nonimmigrant visa applicants to post a bond of up to $15,000 as a condition of visa issuance,” the agency said in a notice to be published Tuesday in the US Federal Register.
The 12-month program would only affect foreign nationals from countries “identified by the Department as having high visa overstay rates” based on a 2023 Department of Homeland Security report, the notice said. It did not specify countries that would be impacted by the program.
The program, which will begin August 20, will apply to B-1 or B-2 nonimmigrant visas, and those asked to pay bonds will have to enter and depart from the United States from a list of pre-selected airports.
Since returning to the White House in January, President Donald Trump and his administration have cracked down on migration to the United States.
The State Department justified the launch of the pilot program by calling it “a key pillar of the Trump Administration’s foreign policy to protect the United States from the clear national security threat posed by visa overstays.”
AFP