WASHINGTON, D.C. — On Monday, August 4, 2025, the U.S. State Department said that it will shortly start a 12-month trial program that would require select foreign nationals to pay a visa bond of up to $15,000. This program, which will start on August 20, is part of the Trump administration’s continuous efforts to make immigration rules stricter and keep people from staying in the country longer than their visas allow.
A public notice that will be published in the Federal Register on Tuesday says that consular officers will be able to demand B-1 business and B-2 tourist visa applicants to post a bond as a condition of getting their visas. The consular officer will decide how much the bail will be, which will be either $5,000, $10,000, or $15,000.
Who Will the New Program Affect?
The trial program would focus on those from nations that the State Department has said have a “high visa overstay rate.” Countries that don’t have enough “screening and vetting information” or those offer “Citizenship by Investment” programs without a residence requirement will also be considered.
The State Department hasn’t posted the formal list of countries that will be affected right now, but a representative said that the list could change over time. A 2023 report from the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) on visa overstay rates, which Reuters cited, found that Chad, Haiti, Myanmar, Yemen, Eritrea, and Burundi had the highest rates of people staying longer than their visas allowed.
The program won’t change anything for people who travel from nations that are members of the Visa Waiver Program.
How the Visa Bond Program Works
The visa bonds are meant to keep people from overstaying their visas by making it more expensive. The bond will be fully refunded if the visa holder leaves the United States on time and follows all the rules of their visa. The government will keep the full bond payment if a passenger stays longer than they are allowed to.
The program also has a rule that limits the entry and exit of people who have to deposit a bond to a list of pre-selected airports in the United States.
In November 2020, during President Trump’s first term, a similar experimental program was started, but it was never completely put into action since the COVID-19 outbreak made travel throughout the world very difficult. The new program is a return to the old policy.
The U.S. Travel Association is worried about how the program could affect tourism to the U.S. They say it could make the US one of the priciest places to get a tourist visa. The group also noted that fewer people from Canada and Mexico are traveling to the U.S., which is a sign that foreign interest in U.S. travel is fading.
A representative for the State Department said that the program is a “key pillar of the Trump administration’s foreign policy to protect the United States from the clear national security threat posed by visa overstays.” The program is also meant to be a “diplomatic tool” to get other countries to make their own screening and vetting processes better.