State Department To Charge Some Travelers $10,000 Bond To Get Visas

The State Department is launching a pilot program wherein it will require travelers entering the United States on tourism and business visas to pay a hefty bond as a guarantee they will not stay in the United States.

In a cable sent to State Department employees Monday, Secretary of State Marco Rubio said the department will implement a 12-month pilot of a “visa bond” program designed to target travelers from countries whose nationals have a high rate of overstaying their visas. That bond could total up to $15,000 per person, but the cable says consular officers will be expected to require a $10,000 bond per adult and $5,000 per child, according to two State Department officials familiar with the cable. The officials were granted anonymity to discuss the internal document without fear of reprisal.

The bonds will be collected by the Treasury Department, per the cable, and travelers will recoup their money if they exit the United States within the timespan of the visa and use specific ports of entry to enter and depart. Travelers affected must also enter the United States within 30 days of the visa being issued.

Those details were further spelled out in an unpublished version of the draft regulation posted to the Federal Register. The final version of the rule is slated to publish in the Federal Register on Tuesday and take effect 15 days later, on Aug. 20. That draft rule says consular officers will be allowed to set the bond for an adult at $5,000 if the officer determines that the higher amount would present an excessive financial burden to the applicant, or $15,000 if a lower figure would be insufficient to ensure the traveler leaves the U.S. within the timespan of their visa.

The State Department confirmed in a statement that the visa bond pilot program was taking place and said the policy "reinforces the Trump administration’s commitment to enforcing U.S. immigration laws and safeguarding U.S. national security." The State Department also said it was authorized to create such a pilot program under the Immigration and Nationality Act.

The countries affected were not spelled out in the draft regulation or the State Department cable but are expected to be announced imminently. Those countries, according to the cable, are also subject to change at any point.

It’s not the first time the U.S. has considered imposing a bond requirement to discourage travelers from overstaying their visas; the first Trump administration announced it would launch a six-month pilot of a similar program in 2020, but it was never fully implemented after the Biden administration took office.

The pilot program was previously reported by Reuters.