NEW TRUMP RULE SLAPS $15,000 BONDS FOR AFRICAN TOURISTS

The outgoing administration of US President Donald Trump issued a new temporary rule that could require tourist and business travelers from two dozen countries, most in Africa, to pay a bond of as much as $15,000 to visit the US, Ted Hesson reported for Reuters.

The US 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 lost a re-election bid earlier this month, 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. Biden’s transition team did not immediately respond to a request for comment related to the visa bond requirement.

The visa bond rule will allow US consular officers to require tourist and business travelers from countries whose nationals had an “overstay rate” of 10% or higher in 2019 to pay a refundable bond of $5,000, $10,000 or $15,000. Twenty-four countries meet that criterion, including 15 African countries. While those nations had higher rates of overstays, they sent relatively few travelers to the United States.