ISLAMABAD (Kashmir English): Pakistan is not included in the new Visa Bond scheme in which US Consular officers now have the option to require certain foreign national visa applicants from 50 countries to put down up to $20,000 into a bond before receiving a visitor visa. The scheme took effect on Tuesday for B-1 visitor visas for business and B-2 visitor visas for pleasure.
The scheme does not mention Pakistan for visas for visits for tourism purposes or business, and instead, listed are few countries from South Asian countries like Bangladesh and Nepal, are listed, while leaving out India. Afghanistan and Iran cannot avail the Visa Bond because the US has no diplomatic ties.
Under the scheme, applicants from any of the 50 countries can be compelled by US consular officers to provide a bond that ranges from $ 10,000 to $20,000.
This cash will be provided back to the person once he or she receives a formal visa – as long as they adhere to their terms and conditions of stay, and depart before the authorised period elapses. They risk losing the bond if he/she over-stays.
The bond isn’t mandated for each visa applicant, and consular officers can decide individually whether it is needed. US State Department officials said they’ve decided that this should be a permanent scheme based on a 2025 pilot test. During that programme “we saw a significant decrease in visa overstays,” and “increasing compliance with US immigration laws,” he said.
While last year there were 45,488 reported visa overstays in each of the 50 countries, fewer than 50 occurred in the first ten months of the test program.
Additionally, the State Department had noticed a decline in visa applications during the pilot program as “some visa applicants just don’t go through the hassle of paying a bond to apply for a visa they don’t actually plan to use”, so the new rule comes along.
The bond maximum limit has been increased from $15,000 to $20,000 with no minimum requirement. Among those 50 nations, 30 were on the continent of Africa, a few of them were in Asia, and the rest were scattered over the Caribbean Islands as well as the Pacific Rim.
