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U.S. mandates more foreign travelers to pay $15,000 visa bond deposits
- e40 10mo agoGift link: https://wapo.st/49t7AMd https://wapo.st/49t7AMd
- e40 10mo agoHmm, South Africa is not exempt, because they are not part of the Visa Waver program. (No country in Africa is part of that program, according to [1].) [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Visa_Waiver_Program#:~:text=As%20of%202026%2C%20nationals%20of,Asia%2D https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Visa_Waiver_Program#:~:text=As...
- ComputerGuru 10mo agoBut Israel, which routinely denies entry (at the border, after flying halfway around the world!) to American citizens of Arab or Palestinian heritage in contravention of the rules and stipulations of the Visa Waiver Program, is (after Biden pushed to get them into the program).
- Havoc 10mo agoSA had a stint of issues with illegitimate but real passport being issued via fraud so think it'll take a while till they make any 1st world waiver lists again
- ceejayoz 10mo agoDepends on skin color. https://za.usembassy.gov/refugee-admissions-program-for-south-africans/ https://za.usembassy.gov/refugee-admissions-program-for-sout... > Consistent with President Trump’s Executive Order on Addressing Egregious Actions of the Republic of South Africa, the Department of State is coordinating with the Department of Homeland Security to consider eligibility for U.S. refugee resettlement for people who are of Afrikaner ethnicity or a member of a racial minority in South Africa who are victims of government-sponsored race-based discrimination. (That's a lot of words to say "white".)
- chrneu 10mo agoA lot of the folks in trump's cabinet are pro-apartheid white supremacists. they think white people in SA are the victims. Stephen Miller is a great example. I'm not disagreeing with ya, just adding more context.
- Havoc 10mo ago>Depends on skin color. Well that is happening too but is separate to what I was alluding to - mistrust of SA issued passports. e.g. Ireland scrapped visa free access & appears to have been for this reason
- epolanski 10mo agoOT but as an European who wanted to come visit the US again (been an exchange student in Ohio State in 2010 and been in US two times aside of that) I keep finding more reasons not to than to do so. The two biggest off putting things are immigration (had few friends blocked half a day required to give access to all their devices just recently, treated very brutally out of nothing) and the insane inflation that happened in the last years. Traveling to the US used to be cheap for Europeans, but the prices are nowadays insane for anything. Used to have a hard time spending 150$ per day in Manhattan, it's twice the amount just for a budget hotel. Went to see the Knicks vs Bucks for 40$, it's like 10 times the amount for the same seat. Attractions like Disneyworld and such as well have skyrocketed to the point it's really off putting. If at least immigration wasn't so obnoxious and I didn't hear horror stories from IRL friends I could swallow the pricing pillow, but not both.
- andrewmcwatters 10mo ago[dead]
- 999900000999 10mo agoOur food is also bland horrible. Theirs no reason to take a vacation here. Everyone is subject to arbitrary detention without reason or cause. Asia is still cheap, has better food and generally has significantly lower crime.
- Moomoomoo309 10mo agoI truly did not get that complaint until I left the NY/NJ area. Wow, it is shocking how bad restaurants are here in the US outside of a few regions. It makes me realize why so many New Jerseyans end up coming back!
- mothballed 10mo agoStill about the same price as being smuggled in by a coyote. Maybe a slight premium. Only slight effect on illegal immigration. I see this as USA basically trying to get the same 'cut' the coyote does.
- jacquesm 10mo agoBecause all immigration is illegal now?
- mothballed 10mo agoYou get the money, at least allegedly, returned if it's legal. ----- re: below due to throttling ------ Yes I agree. I only noted what I felt about its effects on illegal immigration. As for legal immigrants, note my other comment, I think an in-cahoots bond agency that will pop up, collect an annoying but much smaller fee, then let you put up your car or something as collateral.
- jacquesm 10mo agoThe bulk of these people are going to not illegally immigrate. They don't need to be smuggled in but they are going to have to pony up a significant amount of money (more than most of them have). All this will do is put a serious dent into the legal immigration, the illegal ones will come anyway because they have a different risk/reward calculation. And borrowing Donald Trump some money for a few weeks and expecting it back is something that I would not do. Effectively what this will do is to stop people from those countries from traveling to the US entirely. Which is probably the real goal. As to your edit: People flying in from abroad won't have cars available as collateral, and most likely won't be allowed to fly before they put up the bond.
- lcnPylGDnU4H9OF 10mo ago> People flying in from abroad won't have cars available as collateral, and most likely won't be allowed to fly before they put up the bond. This seems moot if such a bond agency would be allowed to set up offices in the origin countries.
- joecool1029 10mo agoWhy Bhutan of all places?
- z2 10mo agoSeems it's because out of the low hundreds people total who visited in a year and were expected to leave the US, some large percent didn't leave, joining the double-digit overstayers club. https://www.dhs.gov/sites/default/files/2025-09/25_0912_cbp_entry-exit-overstay-report-fiscal-year-2024.pdf https://www.dhs.gov/sites/default/files/2025-09/25_0912_cbp_...
- nograpes 10mo agoThanks for the link, to save anyone else the trouble, it seems that the rate for Bhutan is 89 out of 423 (21%) in country overstays. Average overstay rate for non visa waiver countries is 2.2%.
- 0xbadcafebee 10mo agoI don't think it was mentioned, but Bhutan minority groups have experienced ethnic cleansing and oppression; we used to accept their refugees, but now we probably don't, so it's likely that these overstays are actually people fleeing or related to those fleeing persecution. Another fun externality of politicians persecuting immigrants based on statistics.
- darth_avocado 10mo agoBhutan doesn’t have formal diplomatic relations with US. They’re the one of the two countries in Asia that doesn’t have a US embassy, the other being North Korea. (Not suggesting that they’re NK) It’s probably because they just don’t have relationship with the US.
- em-bee 10mo agobhutan has the lowest number of international relations it appears that they intentionally avoid relationships with countries that could try to unduly influence them. https://youtu.be/dA2laOQjZvQ https://youtu.be/dA2laOQjZvQ
- rayiner 10mo agoApparently visa overstays are the primary route for illegal immigration, much more common than illegal border crossing: https://www.npr.org/2019/01/16/686056668/for-seventh-consecutive-year-visa-overstays-exceeded-illegal-border-crossings https://www.npr.org/2019/01/16/686056668/for-seventh-consecu...
- ceejayoz 10mo agoDems have been pointing this out for years, yes. You didn't want to listen, though. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=32051452 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=32051452
- bitshiftfaced 10mo agoIt's ok to change your mind. Kind of a lame move to go digging through someone's history to try to prove them wrong like that.
- ceejayoz 10mo ago> It's ok to change your mind. I don't disagree. Some users on here, though, are a little notorious, and my spidey sense went off given past interactions. One search on https://hn.algolia.com/ https://hn.algolia.com/ and here we are.
- AlexeyBelov 10mo agoYeah, rayiner is quite famous for his.. umm.. views.
- TimorousBestie 10mo agoPersistence of memory—limited deletion of old comments, easy searching through archives—is a key feature of HN that distinguishes it from other forums. I think it’s worth noting that he doesn’t believe that his mind has changed.
- rayiner 10mo ago
- hmokiguess 10mo agowas trying to plan a casual trip with friends and learned about this because the wife of one of our friends is Algerian, now he has to pocket 15k just so they can join us for a music festival.
- mothballed 10mo agoDon't worry, some 'insurance' company totally not in cahoots with the authorities will pop up that will post bond for you in exchange for a non-refundable fee of their own. You might have to put up your car or something as collateral though.
- OGEnthusiast 10mo agoYeah I think Trump/MAGA doesn't want Algerians in the US so that's a feature not a bug to them.
- jkubicek 10mo agoMan, US immigration has been dysfunctional my entire life and it's only gotten worse during the last 10 years. I can't imagine being trusting enough to fork over a $15k bond to the US government. What are you going to do when you're safely back home in the EU and they refuse your refund? What authority would stand any chance of recovering your money?
- ajross 10mo ago> US immigration has been dysfunctional my entire life and it's only gotten worse during the last 10 years. This policy was instituted in August. Pretending that this is just an evolving norm in a pocket along the line of a routine policy spectrum makes you part of the problem, not the solution.
- kylehotchkiss 10mo agoBounty hunting is legal in US, so I'm more than confident that there will be companies that offer this as a service for 10% and require phone/ankle monitoring.
- chrneu 10mo agoThis is very much by design. Republicans, back in the 50s and 60s, basically destroyed US immigration because of mexican farm labor. Lookup the Braseros Program and the series of mass human migrations that used to happen. This goes back to before WW1. The history is pretty fascinating. They knew that they could make this a campaign issue so they did it. Then democrats realized they could also campaign on this issue without actually doing anything. Then once a decade or so someone makes a few changes and the system gets fucked up again. I'm in my late 30s and immigration has always been broken. People have always admitted it's broken. Then nobody does anything to fix it besides posturing/grandstanding for an election cycle.
- jacquesm 10mo agoInteresting, I don't get an article but just one sentence.
- canucker2016 10mo agoW/JavaScript off, yes, same for me. Had to toggle JavaScript on for the site to get the full article.
- cal_dent 10mo agoI'm not American or live in the US, and haven't visited since before covid, but those who are or have been, can you give someone looking in some insight? Does it all just feel so much more explicitly like a state sponsored grift daily or is that just the vibes giving off by my selective media consumption?
- JKCalhoun 10mo agoI live here and, if I ignore the news/media, it's fine. (Not discounting the possibility that perhaps at some point it won't be though. And I am a white male if that makes a difference.)
- chrneu 10mo agoReminder that border patrol and ice have shot 3 people in the last 48 hours, one of them resulting in a death while they refused to allow medical treatment. Then multiple government agencies lied about the evidence, got caught, and lied again. We're not talking disputing facts, the FBI and ICE and the president blatantly lied while there is video evidence showing what happened. Furthermore, a lot of politicians not only agree with this extrajudicial justice, they applauded the lies and the shootings. Even US citizens are being detained. I think most tourists and immigrants should be very, very apprehensive about coming to this country. I live in Oregon where this stuff is happening on the daily. Citizens are being plucked out of high school parking lots with no verification. I think saying "it's fine" is pretty out of touch with reality. If you are non-white I would absolutely not travel to the United States right now. I say this as a white guy on the west coast of the US. Basically all my non-white foreign friends, mostly in academia, refuse to travel to the US right now and have no plans of doing so while Trump is in office. Their organizations and universities also aren't recommending US travel at this time. A social media post from a decade ago could land you in custody. Think about that before traveling to the US. Is it likely? No, but it's very possible with Trump's proud boys doing immigration enforcement. Remember, they(federal agents) have absolute immunity.
- yibg 10mo ago
- 3m 10mo agoBrit here. Went to the USA for a three week holiday this Summer. Had zero issues with immigration, or anything at all in the USA. Had the best time.
- Izikiel43 10mo agoI don't find this that weird, maybe 15k$ is a lot, but being from south america some european countries require you to prove that you have money before traveling if I remember correctly, I think maybe 5k euros?
- garbawarb 10mo agoI don't think they hold that money as a bond.
- abirch 10mo agoIt makes sense to require you to have a certain amount of money if you're going to stay a certain amount of time on a tourist visa. Having dealt with the US Federal government, good luck trying to get your 15K back if there's an administrative issue.
- hmokiguess 10mo agoproof of financial stability and means of supporting oneself is entirely different than withholding that value as a bond
- deleted 10mo ago[deleted]
- cdrnsf 10mo agoI've been telling anyone I know who's planning on visiting or coming to the US not to do so for their own safety. It's no longer worth risking the potential abuse and invasion of privacy.
- 0xbadcafebee 10mo agoReminds me of that moving quote on the Statue of Liberty: "Give us your rested, your rich, your single individuals earning high incomes with special skills, yearning to stay for one year only, the people who don't need asylum from their high-GDP developed democratic nation and own property overseas."
- chrneu 10mo agosolid joke, kudos. lol
- FireBeyond 10mo agoEven the fiance visa program (K-1), which I went through 19 years ago. is affected by similar requirements. It's set up with a number of safeguards: The USC has to apply for it on behalf of the immigrant, while the USC is physically in the country, and the immigrant must not be (to prevent coercion). But the visa is set up to expect the USC to be the primary breadwinner. I get that part of this is to dissuade "buying a visa" (but these days, hah). But my USC fiance was a student while I was an Australian IT professional. The government wanted us to demonstrate that we could support ourselves for months while I found a job, but literally didn't care what finances I contributed to that. Ended up that her mother had to sponsor my visa using her house as surety. For which I am entirely grateful, but bleh. They didn't expect her to pay for our lives, but meant that if I used any government resource such as Medicare/Medicaid, Social Security in my first ten years as a resident, that the IRS (I think) could be asked to effectively bill her for reimbursement of every dollar.
- kylehotchkiss 10mo agoThere's a lot of tourism dollars/euros/yuan/rupees sloshing around looking for a place to go. Looks like Asia will ultimately be the winner, and I mean from east to west - Abu Dhabi is building a Disneyland and Bangkok is the #1 visited city in the world. India's tourism industry (think outside the big cities) seems to be improving very rapidly - every post I see from postcard hotels on instagram gives me wanderlust. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Disneyland_Abu_Dhabi https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Disneyland_Abu_Dhabi https://www.travelandleisure.com/most-visited-city-in-the-world-11879038 https://www.travelandleisure.com/most-visited-city-in-the-wo... https://www.instagram.com/thepostcardhotel/ https://www.instagram.com/thepostcardhotel/
- tsoukase 10mo agoBeing a European and former US admirer, I thought about it almost a year and decided it doesn't worth to visit any more. The couple of times I had in the past I observed the US life is exactly like depicted in US movies (barring the violent scenes). So instead of paying a visit, pay attention to some movie (pun intended).
- kingkandu 10mo agoIt is almost impossible to get international people to come to the US anymore, the few people who are willing to visit can't get visa appointments at the consulate. Wouldn't be surprised if the World Cup sees half empty stadiums this year and tourism related places like Vegas continue to draw down.