The United States Department of State has made the bond program for tourism and business visas a permanent immigration policy, raising the maximum deposit to $20,000 and keeping Cuba, Venezuela, and Nicaragua among the 50 countries affected.
The regulation, published as a draft in the Federal Register last Friday, will officially come into effect this Monday, August 3, when the program will transition from a pilot test to a definitive rule.
The government warned that more countries could be added to the list.
How much needs to be deposited?
The permanent regulation removes the minimum option of $5,000 from the pilot program and now establishes three deposit levels at the discretion of the consular officer: $10,000, $15,000, or $20,000 dollars.
Payment must be made exclusively through Pay.gov, the platform of the Department of the Treasury. The use of third-party sites is prohibited.
One point that the regulation makes clear is that the deposit of the security does not guarantee the issuance of the visa.
Furthermore, visa holders with a bond can only enter and exit the United States via commercial airports; private ports, as well as land or maritime entry points, are prohibited.
The money will be refunded if the visa is denied, if the applicant does not travel before the visa expires, or if the holder meets all conditions and leaves the territory within the authorized timeframe.
From pilot program to permanent standard
The program was launched on August 20, 2025, as a 12-month pilot plan ordered by Donald Trump through Executive Order 14159, and initially covered only 13 countries with high overstay rates.
Cuba was added to the list in January 2026, when the program expanded from 13 to 38 countries, along with Venezuela and other nations from the Caribbean and Latin America.
In April 2026, a new expansion added 12 more nations -including Nicaragua, Georgia, and Ethiopia- bringing the total to 50 current countries, 30 of which are African.
The real effect: An 83% drop in visas issued
The data from the pilot program revealed -as highlighted by the agency AP- that the most significant impact was not on the longer stays beyond the permitted duration, but rather on the demand for visas itself.
In 2024, nearly 45,500 visitors from the included countries overstayed their allowed time; in the first ten months of the pilot program, that number dropped to fewer than 50 cases.
However, it was expected that about 2,000 applicants would need to pay the bond, but it ended up being around 20,000, and nearly half chose not to complete the payment.
The result was an 83% drop in the issuance of B-1/B-2 visas for the affected countries, with a total of $115 million deposited during the pilot program.
State Department officials describe the plan as a "great success," and note that they expect the final regulation to "contribute to the ongoing reduction in the demand for B1/B2 visa applications from citizens of countries subject to the program."
An additional burden for Cubans
For Cubans, this measure adds to a series of restrictions that have accumulated since 2025: in June of that year, Trump signed a proclamation that suspended the entry of Cubans with B-1, B-2, F, M, and J visas.
In December of that year, he expanded the travel ban by adding 20 more countries, keeping Cuba among the nations with partial restrictions.
Cuba has a overstayed rate of 17.08% according to the report from the Department of Homeland Security for fiscal year 2023, a figure that the U.S. government cites to justify its inclusion in the program.
Organizations defending migrants report that the bond raises an economic barrier for legal entry routes and hits harder on citizens from poorer countries who seek to visit family or access educational and business opportunities.
For Cubans, who are already facing severe economic obstacles due to the crisis on the island, gathering between $10,000 and $20,000 without a guarantee of obtaining the visa represents an almost insurmountable barrier.
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