By Rajwa Quasim
The U.S. Travel Association warned that a possible extension of the Trump administration’s visa bond program could discourage international visitors and weaken the country’s tourism sector. The program currently covers over 50 countries and could eventually be extended to additional countries or all countries that require a U.S. visa.
The visa bond program was initially launched as a pilot program in August 2025, and the U.S. Department of State has now adapted it as a permanent policy.
Under the rule, consular officers can require certain tourist and business visa applicants from 50 designated countries to post refundable bonds up to $20,000. The African nations make most of the list while including small number from Asia, the Caribbean, Central Asia and Latin America.
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The Travel Association President Geoff Freeman told Reuters that the move could be a disadvantage to the U.S. economy. He said, “There are already rumblings of expanding this program to additional countries where visas are required, perhaps all countries where visas are required. That would have an extraordinarily detrimental effect on the U.S. economy, on the travel industry.”
The administration has defended the program as a tool to curb visa overstays from nationals of countries with high overstay rates or gaps in information sharing, vetting, and document security. The visa issuances for applicants from countries covered in pilot program fell about 83% during the first 10 months. Meanwhile, the number of stays dropped from 45,488 in 2024 to less than 50 during the pilot period. It is expected that the new countries will be added to the list with just 15 days’ notice. The bonds can be forfeited if a traveler overstays or breaches visa conditions.
Freeman said that though the countries included in the list accounts for less than 2% of international travelers to the U.S., there is already a 25% decline from the Canadian visitors and 50% decline from Asia as compared to 2019. Total overseas travel to the U.S. has declined year-to-year basis, making it 4.3% as per preliminary data from the National Travel and Tourism Office.
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The travel industry hoped that the 2026 FIFA World Cup would attract international visitors and increase economic benefits, but according to data, there was a fall of 1.8%. Freeman said, “If we can’t have year-over-year increases in travelers during the World Cup, which we didn’t, what the heck are we going to do in an average September?”
Canadian travel to U.S. has fallen sharply due to trade disputes and political tensions stay heightened between the two neighboring countries. According to Canadian government data, Canadians took 29.1 million trips to the U.S. last year spending about $12.8 billion in 2025, down from 39 million trips and spending about $15.6 billion in 2024.