The State Department is proposing to require business and tourist visa applicants to post a bond of up to $15,000 to enter the United States, a measure that could make the process inaccessible to many.
In a notice to be published in the Federal Register on Tuesday, the department said it would launch a 12-month pilot program in which people from countries considered to have high rates of visa overstay and deficient internal document security controls could be required to post bonds of $5,000, $10,000, or $15,000 when applying for a visa.
The proposal comes as the Trump administration is tightening requirements for visa applicants. Last week, the State Department announced that many visa renewal applicants would have to undergo an additional in-person interview, something that was not required in the past. Additionally, the department is proposing that Diversity Visa Lottery program applicants have valid passports from their country of citizenship.
A preview of the bond notice, which was posted on the Federal Register website on Monday, said the pilot program would take effect 15 days after its formal publication and is necessary to ensure that the U.S. government is not financially responsible if a visitor fails to comply with the terms of their visa.
“Foreign nationals applying for visas as temporary visitors for business or pleasure and who are nationals of countries identified by the department as having high visa overstay rates, where screening and vetting information is considered deficient, or offering citizenship by investment if the foreign national obtained citizenship without a residency requirement, may be subject to the pilot program,” the notice said.
The affected countries will be listed once the program takes effect, it said. The bond could be waived depending on the individual applicant’s circumstances.
The bond would not apply to citizens of countries enrolled in the Visa Waiver Program, which allows travel for business or tourism for up to 90 days. Most of the 42 countries enrolled in the program are in Europe, with others in Asia, the Middle East, and elsewhere.
Visa bonds have been proposed in the past but not implemented. The State Department has traditionally discouraged the requirement due to the cumbersome process of posting and releasing bonds and possible public misperceptions.
However, the department said that the previous view “is not supported by recent examples or evidence, as visa bonds have not been generally required in any recent period.”