As part of its crackdown on immigration, the U.S. State Department announced that it would start requiring travelers from certain countries to pay bonds of up to $15,000 to enter the U.S.
The 12-month pilot program affects B-1 business and B-2 tourism visas and starts Aug. 20. It targets travelers from countries with historically higher rates of visa overstays, according to the department’s temporary final rule published Aug. 5 in the Federal Register. If visitors comply with the terms of the bond, the amount will be refunded.
The rule follows a travel ban on nationals from 12 countries and other new fees being levied on U.S. visitors.
The new rule targets citizens from countries with high visa overstays. It excludes visitors from Mexico, Canada and the more than 40 countries enrolled in the U.S. Visa Waiver Program. That program allows citizens to travel to the U.S. for tourism or business for up to 90 days without a visa.
Here’s what else to know about the mechanics of the proposal and the history of the idea.
What is a visa bond?
A visa bond is a financial guarantee that some countries require for certain foreign nationals applying for temporary visas to ensure visa holders adhere to the terms of their visa — particularly the length of stay.
Each year, the U.S. grants thousands of temporary nonimmigrant visas to foreign students, tourists and workers. The visas can last from a few weeks to several years.
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If a nonimmigrant remains in the U.S. longer than their authorized period of admission, it’s known as a visa overstay. Although they legally arrived in the U.S., they accumulate unlawful presence after their visas expire.
Most countries require proof of funds for visas but don’t use a system where visitors have to post a refundable bond to enter. New Zealand previously had a visa bond policy to manage overstays, but it is no longer in effect. In 2013, the United Kingdom tried and subsequently scrapped a plan to require a bond on visitors from certain “high-risk” countries.
How much are the bonds?
The proposed U.S. bonds have three tiers: $5,000, $10,000 and $15,000.
The State Department notice said it expects about 2,000 visa applicants will need to post visa bonds during the program.
“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.
Bond amounts will be set by consular officers who will also consider an applicant’s “personal circumstances,” including their reason for travel, employment, income, skills and education.
Consular officers will be able to request waivers in limited circumstances, the department said, such as travel for U.S. government employees or urgent humanitarian needs.
Has this been tried before?
Trump’s State Department tried a visa bonds program in 2020, but it was not fully implemented because of a decrease in global travel during the COVID-19 pandemic.
State Department guidance historically discouraged consular officers from requiring visa bonds, because the process was “cumbersome” and could lead to misperceptions by the public, the State Department’s notice said.
However, the department said this view “is not supported by any recent examples or evidence, as visa bonds have not generally been required in any recent period, notwithstanding a 2020 pilot program that did not provide any substantive data.”
The number of noncitizens who arrived on a visa with no matching departure data “demonstrates that hundreds of thousands of nonimmigrant visitors fail to timely depart in accord with the terms of their visitor visa,” the notice said, citing government reports since 2000.
Which countries would be affected?
Malawi and Zambia are the first two countries subject to visa bonds, the State Department announced Aug. 5.
“Beginning Aug. 20, nationals of Malawi and Zambia applying for B-1, B-2 business and tourist visas will be required to post a bond of up to $15,000,” Tammy Bruce, a State Department spokesperson, said.
Additional countries subject to the bond program will be identified based on high visa overstay rates, where screening and vetting information is deemed deficient, or countries that offer Citizenship by Investment. The department said the list may be revised throughout the program.
Citizenship by Investment programs essentially sell citizenship to noncitizens by having them invest in the country’s economy and have no residency requirement. Some countries with these programs include Antigua & Barbuda, Austria, Jordan, St. Lucia and Turkey.
Which countries have high visa overstay rates?
In fiscal year 2023, numerous countries in Africa as well as Haiti, Laos, Myanmar and Yemen recorded the highest overstay rates for people visiting on B-1 and B-2 visas, a Department of Homeland Security Overstay Report found.
Many of the 12 countries targeted by Trump’s travel ban, including Chad and Eritrea, also have high rates of visa overstays.
What percentage of immigrants in the country illegally are visa overstays?
In its report to Congress, DHS said it anticipated 39 million departures for visa holders in fiscal year 2023; there were about 400,000 visa overstays that year.
Visa overstayers are estimated to account for a sizable proportion of immigrants in the U.S. illegally, which partly explains the increase in the country’s unauthorized immigrant population, according to a report by the Migration Policy Institute, a nonpartisan think tank.
Drawing on data from the 1990s, the then-Immigration and Naturalization Service concluded in 2002 that about 41% of immigrants in the country illegally are visa overstays. That figure became the most widely cited percentage, echoed by politicians including John Carter, Ted Cruz and Marco Rubio.
In 2003, the INS reprocessed the data and estimated that 33% of the immigrant population illegally in the nation in 2000 had overstayed their visas.
In more recent years, the Center for Migration Studies, a nonpartisan think tank studying international migration, found that about 42% of the 2014 population illegally in the country were overstays. The center cited this figure in 2024.
Identifying and tracking visa overstays remains tricky, especially as the nature and origin of border crossers has changed, Jeffrey Passel, Pew Research Center senior demographer, said. “In simple terms, the way we make our estimates doesn’t take into account mode of entry and the underlying data doesn’t have this information either.”