The US Increases The $15,000 visa Bond Rule to Other Countries

The Trump administration has added seven countries, five of which are in Africa, to the list of nations whose passport holders must post bonds of up to $15,000 to enter the United States. Thirteen nations, all but two of them in Africa, are now on the list, making the process of acquiring a US visa prohibitively expensive for many. Last week, the State Department secretly added Bhutan, Botswana, the Central African Republic, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Namibia, and Turkmenistan to the list.

These designations were effective on January 1, according to a notification posted on the travel.state.gov website. The Trump administration’s latest effort to tighten entry requirements to the United States includes requiring citizens from all visa-required countries to sit for in-person interviews and disclose years of social media histories, as well as detailed accounts of their and their families’ previous travel and living arrangements.

US officials have defended the bonds, which can range from $5,000 to $15,000, arguing that they are successful in preventing citizens of selected nations from overstaying their visas. Payment of the bond does not guarantee that a visa will be issued.

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