By Simdi Gloria:-
President Donald Trump, the outgoing United States administration has issued a new temporary rule for tourists visiting the country.
This rule requires tourists and business travellers from about two dozen countries, mostly Africa to pay a bond as much as $15,000 to visit the United States.
The US department confirming this as a temporary rule said the rule is to take effect from Dec 24 to June 24. And it targets countries whose nationals have a higher rate of overstaying B-2 visas for tourists and B-1 visas for business travellers.
The Trump administration noted that the program which is to last for 6 months aims to test the feasibility of collecting such bonds and it will serve as a diplomatic deterrence to overstaying visas.
Biden’s transition team did not immediately respond to a request for a comment on the visa bond.
This rule will allow US consular officers to require tourists and business travellers from countries whose nationals had an overstay rate of 10% or higher in 2019 to pay a refundable bond of $5000, $10,000 or $15,000.
15 African countries were included in the 24 countries that met the criteria.
Countries whose tourist and business travellers could be subject to this bond include the Democratic Republic of Congo, Liberia, Sudan, Chad, Angola, Burundi, Djibouti, Eritrea. Others include Afghanistan, Bhutan, Iran, Syria, Laos, Yemen.
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