US adds seven countries to visa bond list; are you affected?

As many as seven countries have now been added to the list of states whose citizens will be subject to US visa bonds.

Starting October 23, citizens from Mali, Mauritania, Sao Tome and Principe, and Tanzania will have to submit bonds of up to $15,000 when applying for a B1/B2 visa.

Malawi and Zambia were the first two countries to be added to the list, followed by The Gambia.

Below is the list of countries and the visa bond implementation date:

“Any citizen or national traveling on a passport issued by one of these countries, who is found otherwise eligible for a B1/B2 visa, must post a bond for $5,000, $10,000, or $15,000. The amount is determined at the time of the visa interview,” the department of state said.

The state department added that applicants must agree to the terms of the bond through the Department of the Treasury’s online payment platform Pay.gov.

“This requirement applies regardless of place of application,” the department said.

Applicants should submit Form I-352 to post a bond only after a consular officer directs them to do so. These applicants will get a direct link to pay through Pay.gov.

The department warned that applicants must not use any third-party website for posting the bond. “The US government is not responsible for any money paid outside of its systems,” it said.

“A bond does not guarantee visa issuance. If someone pays fees without a consular officer’s direction, they will not get that money back,” it added.

As a condition of the bond, all visa holders who have posted a visa bond must enter and exit the US through three designated ports of entry: Boston Logan International Airport (BOS), John F. Kennedy International Airport (JFK), and Washington Dulles International Airport (IAD).

“Not doing this might lead to a denied entry or a departure that is not properly recorded,” the department said.

The full visa bond amount will be returned automatically if the applicant follows all terms of their nonimmigrant visa status and the visa bond, which include: The visa holder departs from the US on or before the date they are authorised to stay in the country; or the visa holder does not travel to the US before the expiration of the visa; or the visa holder applies for and is denied admission at the US port of entry.

In what appears to be the first major challenge to the new $100,000 fee required for H-1B visa applications, a coalition of health care providers, religious groups, university professors and others filed a federal lawsuit last week to stop the plan, saying it has “thrown employers, workers and federal agencies into chaos”.

President Donald Trump signed a proclamation on September 19 requiring the new fee, saying the H-1B visa program “has been deliberately exploited to replace, rather than supplement, American workers with lower-paid, lower-skilled labor.” The changes were slated to go into effect in 36 hours, which caused panic for employers, who instructed their workers to return to the U.S. immediately.

The lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court in San Francisco, said the H-1B program is a critical pathway to hiring healthcare workers and educators. It drives innovation and economic growth in the U.S., and allows employers to fill jobs in specialised fields, the lawsuit said.

“Without relief, hospitals will lose medical staff, churches will lose pastors, classrooms will lose teachers, and industries across the country risk losing key innovators,” Democracy Forward Foundation and Justice Action Center said in a press release. “The suit asks the court to immediately block the order and restore predictability for employers and workers.”

They called the new fee “Trump's latest anti-immigration power grab.”