The Trump administration is moving forward with a controversial new plan to impose visa bonds ranging from $5,000 to $15,000 on applicants from countries with high rates of visa overstays and inadequate vetting systems, according to a State Department pilot program slated to be announced Tuesday.
The year-long program, detailed in a notice to be published in the Federal Register, will target visitors from nations with high overstay numbers, such as Haiti and Venezuela, each of which saw more than 20,000 citizens remain in the U.S. illegally after their visas expired in 2023. Other nations likely to be affected include Brazil, Russia, and India—all with tens of thousands of overstays in recent years.
Chad had the highest percentage of overstays last year at 49.5%, though only 761 temporary visa holders entered from there. Applicants will be required to pay a refundable bond—ranging from $5,000 to $15,000—before being granted short-term B-1 (business) or B-2 (tourism) visas.
These visas typically allow a stay of up to six months and currently require an application fee of $185. For most applicants from targeted nations, the new bond requirement could make travel to the U.S. financially unfeasible.
“The proposed rule will greatly affect my clients, especially with the [U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services] fees that have also been increased recently,” said Arnoldo Benitez, an immigration attorney representing visa applicants from Central and South America and Europe.
The new rule follows through on an executive order signed by President Trump on his first day in office, directing federal agencies to implement visa bond requirements. A similar proposal was floated in November 2020 but was shelved due to pandemic-related travel restrictions.
The new policy will also enforce a $250 “visa integrity fee” as part of the broader immigration reform push under Secretary of State Marco Rubio. DHS data suggests that visa overstays account for up to 40% of the undocumented immigrant population in the U.S.
Applicants from countries in the Visa Waiver Program—mostly European allies and nations like Japan and Australia—will be exempt from the bond requirement. Meanwhile, visa enforcement has intensified under the Trump administration. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has increasingly targeted courthouses during visa-related hearings, raising concerns from immigration advocates.
Over the weekend, ICE detained 20-year-old Purdue University student Yeonsoo Go, who was transitioning from a religious visa to a student visa, and a Peruvian asylum seeker named Keatty, whose last name was withheld, during hearings in New York City. “There’s always a risk if you are here without status,” Benitez said. “What happens is that risk was minimal in previous administrations.”
A DHS spokesperson told the New York Daily News that the administration is “committed to restoring integrity to the visa program and ensuring it is not abused to allow aliens a permanent one-way ticket to remain in the U.S.” The State Department declined to comment.