Summary of Current Travel Ban Restrictions
On June 26, 2018, the Supreme Court struck down the nationwide preliminary injunction that would have prevented enforcement of the president’s September 24, 2017 Proclamation banning travel to the U.S. by certain nationals of Iran, Libya, North Korea, Syria, Venezuela, Yemen, and Somalia (Iraq and Chad were originally included by subsequently removed.) The Supreme Court ruling now means that nationals of these countries face certain restrictions on travel to the U.S.
The following is a chart from the U.S. Department of State, identifying the affected countries and the types of entries that are restricted.
|
Country |
Non-Immigrant Visas |
Immigrant & Diversity Visas |
|
Iran |
No non-immigrant visas except F, M, & J student visas |
No immigrant or diversity visas* |
|
Libya |
No B-1, B02, and B-1/B-2 visas |
No immigrant or diversity visas |
|
North Korea |
No non-immigrant visas |
No immigrant or diversity visas |
|
Syria |
No non-immigrant visas |
No immigrant or diversity visas |
|
Venezuela |
No B-1, B-2 or B-1/B-2 visas of any kind for officials of the following government agencies Ministry of Interior, Justice, and Peace; the Administrative Service of Identification, Migration, and Immigration; the Corps of Scientific Investigations, Judicial and Criminal; the Bolivarian Intelligence Service; and the People’s Power Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and their immediate family members. |
No restrictions |
|
Yemen |
No B-1, B-2, and B-1/B-2 visas |
No immigrant or diversity visas |
|
Somalia |
No non-immigrant visas** |
No immigrant or diversity visas |
*The Proclamation does not specifically reference "Diversity Visas", although a chart published by the DOS at the time of the proclamation includes Diversity Visas with Immigrant Visas. The Diversity Visa program allows issuance of a limited number of permanent resident green cards to individuals who are citizens of countries with historically low levels of immigration into the United States.
**The published DOS chart lists Somalia as a country for which no non-immigrant visas will be issued. However, the Proclamation makes no such broad statement. The Proclamation states that the DOS will engage in additional scrutiny for non-immigrant applications from Somalia to ensure that the applicant has no connection to a terrorist organization or otherwise poses a threat.
