A new temporary rule that could require tourist and business travelers from two dozen countries, mostly in Africa, to pay a bond of as much as $15,000 to visit the United States was issued by the outgoing administration of U.S. President Donald Trump on Monday.
According to Reuters Trump Imposes $15,000 Visa Bond on Nigerians and other countries on a visa bond ranging from $5,000 to $15,000.
The new temporary rule means that tourist and business travelers from a dozen African countries, including Nigeria, will pay a bond to visit the United States.
The new rule will take effect from 24 December.
Following the report, the U.S mission Nigeria has since debunked this by revealing on Twitter that Nigeria was exempt from this pilot.
Trump’s Presidential Memorandum on combating High Non-immigrant Overstay Rates saw the U.S embassies and consulates overseas conducting an in-depth analysis to identify and address the root causes of overstays. Among other efforts to address this challenge, the State Department considered additional steps to address overstays, including piloting a limited visa bonds program to test, in coordination with the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), the operational feasibility of posting, processing, and discharging visa bonds as a means to ensure the timely departure from the United States of certain travelers.
The Trump administration was committed to combating visa overstays and making sure travelers to the United States left as at when due.
Other countries whose tourist and business travelers could be subject to the bond requirement are those from the Democratic Republic of Congo, Liberia, Sudan, Chad, Angola, Burundi, Djibouti, and Eritrea.
Afghanistan, Bhutan, Iran, Syria, Laos, and Yemen are also listed.
Travelers from these countries will have to pay the bond as some categories of visitors overshot the threshold of 10 percent and above the overstaying rate.
Overall, out of 177,835 Nigerians who visited the US in 2019, the overstaying rate was between 9.45-9.88 percent.
A total of 17,566 overstayed. Out of the figure, 764 departed late and 16,802 stayed in the country.
But in other classifications, 11.12 percent of 9,336 Nigerian non-immigrant and exchange visitors overstayed.
Another 13.67 percent of in-scope non-immigrant visitors also overstayed same year.
The U.S. State Department said the temporary final rule, which takes effect Dec. 24 and runs through June 24, targets countries whose nationals have higher rates of overstaying B-2 visas for tourists and B-1 visas for business travelers.
The Trump administration said the six-month pilot program aims to test the feasibility of collecting such bonds and will serve as a diplomatic deterrence to overstaying the visas.
Trump, who only just allowed the transition procedure takes effect after Joe Biden had been projected winner of the U.S Presidential election, made restricting immigration a central part of his four-year term in office.
President-elect Joe Biden, a Democrat, has pledged to reverse many of the Republican president’s immigration policies, but untangling hundreds of changes could take months or years.
The U.S Mission website clearly states that the implementation of the pilot will foster engagement with foreign governments and ensure continued progress to reduce overstay rates.
“Nigeria is not included in these six months pilot program.” It said.