Six New Countries Face Travel Restrictions to the US

Another travel ban has been issued today for nationals of six countries effective February 22, 2020. The new travel restrictions will prevent nationals from Eritrea, Kyrgyzstan, Myanmar (also known as Burma), and Nigeria from applying for immigrant visas with limited exceptions. The new policy also bars nationals of Sudan and Tanzania from applying for an immigrant visa based on the annual green card lottery (known formally as the Diversity Visa lottery). Immigrants who were issued visas prior to this policy taking effect remain eligible for entry into the country. 

Unlike the travel ban issued three years ago (Proclamation 9645), this ban only prevents nationals from the countries listed above from applying for immigrant visas, which means visitors (B-1/B-2), students and scholars (F-1/J-1), and temporary workers (H, L, O) can still apply for visas and travel to the United States. Restrictions on the countries included in the original travel ban: Iran, Libya, Somalia, Syria, and Yemen, will remain in place. The limited ban on citizens from Venezuela and North Korea who are acting in an official capacity also remains in place.

According to Chad Wolf, acting Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), these restrictions stem from security concerns related to information-sharing and passport security in these countries. The selection of these countries comes as a result of a public-safety risk assessment DHS performs every six months.

This alert is for informational purposes only.  Please contact us if you would like to discuss this development further.