In its latest bid to curb short-term overstays, the U.S. State Department quietly confirmed on 24 March that the controversial visa-bond pilot—requiring select B-1/B-2 applicants to lodge a refundable surety of up to US$15,000—will be expanded from six to eighteen nations effective 2 April 2026. According to updated guidance tracked on Wikipedia’s “Travel bans under the Trump administrations” page, the new list sweeps in Cambodia, Ethiopia, Georgia, Grenada, Lesotho, Mauritius, Mongolia, Mozambique, Nicaragua, Papua New Guinea, Seychelles and Tunisia. The bond, payable before consular adjudication, is refunded only if the traveller departs the United States before the authorised stay expires. Officials say the 2025 pilot covering Malawi and Zambia slashed overstay rates by 97 percent. Human-rights advocates counter that a five-figure cash hold disproportionately hurts small businesses and family visitors from lower-income countries and functions as a “pay-to-visit” scheme. For U.S. employers, the expansion adds administrative friction when hosting visitors from the newly-listed states—especially for sales tours, training programmes and short consulting projects that typically rely on B-1 classification. Companies should review travel-approval workflows to flag travellers who may need to post bonds and budget additional processing time. The Department insists the measure is temporary, but insiders suggest that strong compliance data will make the bond a permanent feature. A senior consular officer, speaking anonymously, noted that “Congress is pressuring us for measurable overstays reduction; the bond is the quickest metric we have.” Mobility teams should monitor further Federal Register notices for potential tiered-bond structures—or an expansion to student and seasonal-worker visas.
