New York, August 5

The Trump administration is implementing a pilot programme under which foreign visitors arriving in the US on tourist or business visas could be required to pay a “bond” of up to $15,000 to ensure they don’t overstay their visas.

The countries that would come under the purview of the programme have not been announced yet.

The US State Department has issued a ‘temporary final rule’ under which a 12-month long visa bond pilot programme will be started.

The State Department said under this pilot programme, foreign individuals applying for the B-1/B-2 visas to come into the US for business or tourism could be required to post a bond of up to $15,000.

The department said the rule is described as a “key pillar of the Trump administration’s foreign policy to protect the United States from the clear national security threat posed by visa overstays and deficient screening and vetting”.

“Individuals applying for visas as temporary visitors for business or pleasure (B-1/B-2) and who are nationals of countries identified by the Department as having high visa overstay rates, where screening and vetting information is deemed deficient, or offering citizenship by investment, if the alien obtained citizenship with no residency requirement, may be subject to the pilot programme,” the department said in a public notice.

It said consular officers may require covered nonimmigrant visa “applicants to post a bond of up to $15,000 as a condition of visa issuance, as determined by the consular officers”.The pilot programme, expected to start this month, will be effective till August 5, 2026.

The pilot programme appears to be part of the Trump administration’s crackdown on illegal immigration, a key agenda of the US president’s electoral run and his second term in the White House. The public notice states that over the years, it has been found that hundreds of thousands of nonimmigrant visitors do not depart the US timely and overstay their visas.

While the public notice does not mention which countries will come under the purview of the programme, it said that the State Department will announce the covered countries within at least 15 days before the pilot programme takes effect and this list will be amended as required.