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At a glance
Late Wednesday, President Joseph R. Biden issued a presidential proclamation that revokes two Trump Administration nationality-based travel bans targeting primarily Muslim-majority and African countries. Under the order, the Secretary of State must direct U.S. embassies and consulates to resume processing visa applications previously subject to the bans in a manner consistent with current consular operating status and COVID-19 precautions.
As a result of the proclamation, nationals of Iran, Libya, North Korea, Somalia, Syria, Venezuela, and Yemen will no longer be subject to restrictions on nonimmigrant and/or immigrant visa issuance imposed by a 2017 Trump administration travel ban, that was revised multiple times amid legal challenges, and ultimately upheld by the Supreme Court in June 2018.
Nationals of Eritrea, Kyrgyzstan, Myanmar (Burma), Nigeria, Sudan, and Tanzania will no longer be subject to immigrant visa restrictions under a January 2020 Trump proclamation. This ban affected nationals seeking to enter the United States for permanent residence only.
Both bans authorized certain exemptions and waivers, but in practice, waivers were challenging to obtain and could be delayed for lengthy periods of time.
Specifically, nationals of the following countries under the 2017 ban will no longer be subject to these limitations:
Nationals of the following previously restricted countries under the January 2020 immigrant visa ban will no longer be subject to the following immigrant visa issuance limitations:
The presidential proclamation also requires the Secretary of State to provide President Biden with a report within 45 days that contains the following:
Further, within 120 days, the Secretary of State and the Secretary of Homeland Security, in consultation with the Director of National Intelligence, must provide to President Biden a report containing the following:
Foreign nationals affected by the rescinded bans will no longer be subject to their restrictions. As a reminder, several other directives impacting visa issuance and travel remain in place, including those that are nationality-based (e.g., bans affecting certain Chinese students and certain Venezuelan nationals) and visa classification-based, as well as existing COVID-19 public health bans and travel restrictions. Further, all foreign nationals are subject to national security screening and vetting when applying for a U.S. visa or admission to the United States, which could delay visa issuance notwithstanding the revocation of the two Trump-era bans.
This alert is for informational purposes only. If you have any questions, please contact the immigration professional with whom you work at Fragomen.