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The U.S. State Department unveiled plans Monday for a six-month “visa bond” pilot program whereby consular officials would require a limited number of B-1/B-2 visa applicants to post a bond of $5,000, $10,000 or $15,000 in order to travel to the United States.
Key Points:
BAL Analysis: The State Department rule says the pilot program is designed to “assess the operational feasibility of posting, processing, and discharging visa bonds” and “to help assess the burden on government agencies and identify any practical challenges related to visa bonds.” The agency deliberately chose a small group in order to test the feasibility of using visa bonds. For that reason, the impact will likely be minimal. It is likely that the next administration will not be interested in pursuing this initiative, and the new administration could effectively decline to implement the rule by waiving all bond applications. BAL will continue to follow the implementation of the rule and will provide clients with updates as information becomes available.
This alert has been provided by the BAL U.S. Practice group. For additional information, please contact berryapplemanleiden@bal.com.
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