Right this moment, the State Division introduced a brand new visa bond pilot program that may take impact on August 20. On that date, guests from sure nations could have to pay a bond of $5,000 to $15,000 to enter the nation as a vacationer.
Just like the $250 visa integrity charge launched with the passage of the “One Huge, Stunning Invoice,” it is primarily a refundable safety deposit. Guests will get the cash refunded if they do not breach the phrases of the bond.
The State Division tried an identical transfer throughout Trump’s first time period in workplace, implementing a six-month visa bond pilot program in 2020. However, pandemic-related journey restrictions compelled the company to place this system on maintain.
Subscribe to Kiplinger’s Private Finance
Be a wiser, higher knowledgeable investor.
Save as much as 74%
Join Kiplinger’s Free E-Newsletters
Revenue and prosper with the perfect of professional recommendation on investing, taxes, retirement, private finance and extra – straight to your e-mail.
Revenue and prosper with the perfect of professional recommendation – straight to your e-mail.
Whereas its influence to date appears slim in scope, the discover leaves room to broaden its attain to extra nations as this system continues. Here is all the things we all know concerning the $15,000 visa bond to date.
What’s the visa bond pilot program?
(Picture credit score: Getty Photos)
In keeping with the notification printed by the State Division, the visa bond pilot program will apply to guests with a B-1 or B-2 visa. These are primarily momentary vacationer visas for folks coming right here for short-term holidays or enterprise journeys.
The division says it should impose the bond requirement on nations which have a excessive visa overstay price. In keeping with a 2023 report from the Congressional Analysis Service, fewer than 2% of nonimmigrant visa holders overstay their visa every year, which quantities to 720,000 overstays per yr on common. Nearly all of these do first enter the nation on a B-1 or B-2 visa.
It could additionally goal nations that provide golden visas, or “citizenship by funding” together with a handful of different nations deemed excessive threat by the state division.
As a part of the visa utility course of, consular officers can require a bond of at least $5,000 and as much as $15,000 from guests who’re coming from the goal nations. The bond is supposed to behave as a type of safety deposit. So long as visa holders depart the nation on or earlier than the departure date, they’re going to get their a refund. In actuality, it is somewhat extra difficult than that, as you will see later on this article.
The pilot program will run for 12 months, expiring on August 6, 2026.
Which nations should put up the visa bond?
Proper now, solely two nations are on the checklist: Malawi and Zambia. However the discover from the State Division said that extra might be added all through the pilot program. If any are added, they are going to be introduced at the least 15 days earlier than the bond necessities go into impact for these nations.
Due to the restricted scope of the visa bond pilot program, the State Division estimates that solely about 2,000 guests will probably be anticipated to put up the bond. However that is only a trial run to see if this sort of coverage is logistically possible.
The visa bond compliance necessities are difficult
On the floor, the method to get your bond returned appears simple. Guests who depart on or earlier than their approved departure date (or who get a visa however find yourself not touring in any respect) can have the bond cost returned to them.
In actuality, it is somewhat extra difficult than that. Visa holders should arrive and depart from one of many required ports of entry listed on the State Division web site. Proper now, that checklist consists of simply three airports: Boston, JFK and Washington Dulles.
So, vacationers who need to go to, say, California or Florida, would want to ensure their flight itinerary has them coming into and leaving the nation by way of a kind of northeastern airports.
What the visa bond means for these in search of asylum
A simple-to-overlook element of this new pilot program is the third situation that counts as a breach of the visa bond. Guests who journey right here on a legitimate nonimmigrant visa after which apply for an immigrant visa will probably be thought-about in breach of the bond and will not get their refund. The State Division specifies that this consists of making use of for asylum.
On the similar time, U.S. regulation requires asylum seekers to be bodily current within the nation to be able to declare asylum right here. The one authorized means to do this, then, is to enter the nation on a nonimmigrant visa.
The timing of this new pilot program is notable. It comes only one month after a federal choose struck down Trump’s proclamation blocking asylum seekers coming to the nation by way of the U.S. border with Mexico.
Whereas this program would not truly ban asylum seekers, it does successfully imply that refugees coming from nations on the checklist should deal with the as much as $15,000 bond as an utility charge – as they haven’t any alternative however to enter the nation to be able to declare asylum and, in claiming asylum, they’re in breach of the visa bond.
What to anticipate subsequent from the visa bond pilot program
For now, the visa bond pilot program applies to just some vacationers from choose nations. However relying on the way it unfolds, the State Division could broaden it to incorporate extra nations — probably affecting hundreds extra guests sooner or later.
Vacationers ought to test the U.S. State Division’s web site for essentially the most up-to-date checklist of nations affected by the visa bond requirement.
