If the visa is granted and the traveler complies with its phrases—most significantly, leaving the US on time—the bond is refunded after the journey. If they don’t, they threat forfeiting it.
Which nations are affected?
What started as a restricted pilot program of two nations, Malawi and Zambia, in August 2025 has steadily expanded. The State Department now applies the coverage to 50 nations, together with 30 African nations, 9 Asian nations, 5 from North America (together with the Caribbean and Central America), 5 from Oceania, and 1 from South America.
The most lately added nations, as of April 2, embrace Cambodia, Ethiopia, Georgia, Grenada, Lesotho, Mauritius, Mongolia, Mozambique, Nicaragua, Papua New Guinea, and Seychelles.
Several nations with nationwide groups collaborating within the World Cup—together with Algeria, Cape Verde, Côte d’Ivoire, Senegal, and Tunisia—initially fell underneath this system. However, underneath the newly introduced exemption, eligible followers from these 5 nations who’ve secured official World Cup tickets and registered via the expedited visa system will not have to submit the bond.
It stays unclear whether or not another teams might be exempt from the visa bond requirement. While earlier journey bans underneath the Trump administration included carve-outs for athletes and officers collaborating in main worldwide occasions just like the World Cup, no different exemptions are explicitly outlined within the present visa bond program.
Why this issues for sports activities tourism within the US
Even with the exemption now in place for some followers, the controversy highlights the difficult intersection of immigration coverage and world sporting occasions.
For months, the potential for a $15,000 visa bond threatened to turn out to be one of many single largest monetary limitations going through followers from some collaborating nations. And in contrast to airfare or accommodations, it wasn’t a price vacationers might strategically store round to scale back.
“For countries like Cape Verde, with a relatively small population, the requirement could [have] disproportionately limited fan turnout despite historic first participation in the tournament,” immigration lawyer Jimmy Lai, of Lai & Turner Law Firm, informed Condé Nast Traveler earlier than the exemption was put in place.