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Starting August 20, the United States will launch a pilot visa program requiring select travelers to post bonds ranging from $5,000 to $15,000. The measure targets applicants from countries with high overstay rates or insufficient screening procedures.
According to the official notice, consular officers will have the discretion to apply the bond requirement to certain tourist and business visa applicants. The program is intended to curb visa overstays — individuals who remain in the US beyond the time allowed by their visa.
The initiative follows a broader push under President Donald Trump’s administration to tighten immigration controls, including a travel ban issued in June that restricts entry from 19 countries for national security reasons.
The new visa bond program will last approximately one year. While consular officials can select from three bond levels, the most common requirement is expected to be $10,000 or more.
A similar program was introduced in late 2020 during the final months of Trump’s first term, but it was never fully implemented due to the COVID-19 pandemic’s impact on global travel.
The State Department has not provided an estimate of how many visa applicants may be affected. However, many of the countries named in previous travel bans — such as Chad, Eritrea, Haiti, Myanmar, and Yemen — have also recorded high visa overstay rates. African nations including Burundi, Djibouti, and Togo were also listed among those with significant overstay numbers, based on 2023 data from US Customs and Border Protection.
The policy may impact international travel, which has already declined. Transatlantic air travel returned to pre-pandemic levels only recently, while trips from Canada and Mexico to the US dropped 20% year-over-year.
