As part of the US New administration crack down on immigration, the US Department of State has drafted a now publicly available memo that list 41 countries for possible US travel restriction.
The 41 countries are divided into three categories comprising of; Full visa suspension, Partial visa suspension and countries recommended for a partial suspension.
The first category of 10 countries, mostly countries already on the US sanction list for different reasons ranging from terrorism to nuclear weapons related sanctioni include countries like Afghanistan, Iran, North Korea among others. See full list here
The second category has five countries, including Eritrea and South Sudan. This second group would face partial suspensions and this would impact tourist and student visas as well as other immigrant visas. There will however be some exceptions applied to this category.
There are 26 countries in the third and largest category, and this include countries like Cameroon, Cambodia, Pakistan, Belarus Burkina Faso. With the exception of Antigua and Barbuda, Belarus, Bhutan, Pakistan, Saint Lucia and Saint Kitts and Nevis, the rest of the countries in this third category are from Africa. See full list here
This third category will be considered for a partial suspension of U.S. visa issuance if their respective governments “do not make efforts to address deficiencies within 60 days”
It is alleged the deficiencies to be addressed include concerns over failure to share traveller information with the United States, strengthen security measures for issuing passports and other travelling related deficiencies.
