We couldn’t be more thrilled with the US State Department’s bold new plans! Specifically, they want to impose a bond requirement on certain tourists and business travelers, as much as $15,000. Their Visa Overstay Initiative addresses overstays from specific countries. Allow us to introduce you to a major provision embedded in the draft for a highly-anticipated temporary final rule. This should be a boon to visitors from countries with >10% overstay rates, as those are the only countries impacted by this new pilot program. Most notably, it furthers the policy groundwork laid during the Trump administration.
The new bond requirement focuses on breaking through for about two dozen countries—the majority located in Africa. The specific aims of the pilot program, which will run for 12 months, are to improve monitoring of compliance with visa conditions. If the proposal goes ahead, the State Department will issue a notice for a federal registry on August 5. This advisory will introduce the bond program and detail what it means.
Alongside the bond requirement, the State Department recently issued additional guidance to US diplomats. Yet this guidance tells them to gouge through the online presence of foreign nationals applying for educational and exchange visas. Students who resist these commands by not granting access to their social media profiles will automatically trigger red flags regarding their character, inviting closer examination.
The bond system may undergo changes, with the list of countries subject to the requirement potentially revised with just 15 days’ notice. Travelers who take these bonds will get their money returned upon leaving the US. Moreover, they have their money refunded upon naturalization as citizens or upon their death.
The new Healthy Streets pilot program reintroduces an initiative that the Trump administration first proposed in November of 2020. This campaign was focused on making immigration enforcement stricter. While the former six-month pilot program was never put into effect, this new endeavor is a testament to the persistent appetite for immigration enforcement through compliance monitoring.
According to the federal registry notice, “The Pilot Program will enable the Department to assess the operational feasibility of posting, processing, and discharging visa bonds, in coordination with the Department of the Treasury and the Department of Homeland Security, and to inform any future decision concerning the possible use of visa bonds to ensure nonimmigrants using these visa categories comply with the terms and conditions of their visas and timely depart the United States.”
Though the new bond system will be overseen by the US Department of Homeland Security and Immigration and Customs Enforcement. This project is a welcome pilot amidst broader efforts, including previously proposed ideas to better mitigate immigration and visa overstays fears.