The US Visa Bond Programme Is Now Permanent — Three Bond Levels, Short-Dated Visas, and Air-Only Entry and Exit

The State Department has finalised the visa bond rule it first introduced as a temporary measure. The pilot took effect on 20 August 2025 and ran until 5 August 2026; the final rule was published on 3 August 2026 and took effect the same day. It amends 22 CFR part 41 and rests on section 221(g)(3) of the Immigration and Nationality Act, which lets a consular officer require a bond to help ensure a visitor maintains their status and departs on time.

The practical change is that this is no longer an experiment with an end date. A bond requirement is now a standing feature of the B-1/B-2 process for nationals of covered countries, and the rule builds in an automatic inflation adjustment to the maximum from 1 October 2027, then every seven years after that.

The rule sets a maximum bond of up to USD 20,000. It is important to read that correctly: it is not a sliding scale that could produce a small figure. The Federal Register text specifies that the exact amount will be one of three fixed levels — USD 10,000, USD 15,000 or USD 20,000 — “based upon the applicant’s circumstances as determined by the consular officer, unless the bond requirement is waived”. Bonds must be posted in US currency.

The rule does publish how officers are expected to choose. USD 15,000 is the default: consular officers “are expected to set the bond amount at $15,000”, dropping to USD 10,000 where the officer believes the applicant could not pay that and still fund the trip, and rising to USD 20,000 where the applicant’s circumstances — expressly including “the nature and extent of the alien’s contacts in the United States” — suggest USD 15,000 would not secure timely departure. Note the direction of that last one: stronger US ties push the bond up, not down. What is not published is any schedule tying a nationality to an amount, and the Department reserves the ability to issue “guidance for a different amount”. Plan around USD 15,000 as the expected figure rather than an unknown.

If the traveller complies and departs as required, the bond is cancelled — but what returns is principal only. The rule states there will be “no interest accrued”, that the return is “subject to potential offset and levy through the Treasury Offset Program”, and that the payer carries any exchange and card-processing fees. On a substantial violation the rule is categorical: “The entire amount of the visa bond shall be forfeited, and not returned to the obligor.” There is no partial forfeiture, and the listed triggers go beyond overstaying — they include filing an untimely extension-of-stay request and filing an asylum or other Form I-589 humanitarian claim.

Most coverage of this rule focuses on the headline figure. For someone actually planning a trip from the UAE, two other conditions in the regulation are likely to matter more.

First, a bonded visa is short. The rule provides that where a bond is posted and the applicant is otherwise eligible, the officer may issue a visa “valid for three months single entry, three months multiple entry, or up to 12 months multiple entry, depending on visa reciprocity, with an annotation indicating the posting of a visa bond”. For nationalities whose reciprocity schedule would otherwise give a multi-year B-1/B-2, that is materially shorter — and it means the bond process may repeat on the next application. Check your own reciprocity schedule on travel.state.gov.

Second, the rule restricts how a bonded traveller may cross the border. As a condition of the bond, the visa holder “may only enter and depart the United States through commercial airports of entry, including CBP Preclearance locations, and may not use land or sea ports of entry”. Read that with the sentence that follows it: a traveller “may be permitted to travel to contiguous territories after his or her initial entry” and be readmitted by land under the automatic revalidation provisions at 22 CFR 41.122(d) — but “the traveler’s ultimate departure abroad must occur at a commercial U.S. airport of entry”. So a short trip to Canada or Mexico with a land return may still be possible after you have arrived; what must be by commercial air is your initial entry and your final departure. Arrival by sea is not available.

The rule does not fix a country list in regulation. The codified test at 22 CFR 41.11(c)(2) reaches nationals of countries with high overstay rates, deficient information sharing, insufficient identity verification and criminal records, “and/or” that need improvement in screening and vetting and the security of travel and civil documents. Note the “and/or”: a country need not fail on every ground. Meeting the criteria is also not decisive — the rule states inclusion “is not mandatory if the criteria are met”, so only the published list determines whether you are covered.

The list itself is published on travel.state.gov. The Department announces covered countries no fewer than 15 days before the programme takes effect for them, and the rule allows the list to be amended on a rolling basis — additions take 15 days from announcement, while removals take effect immediately. Nationals of countries covered under the 2025 pilot continued to be covered when the final rule took effect.

Because that list can change between the day this page was written and the day you read it, OraVisa does not reproduce it here. Check the current list on the State Department’s own page before drawing any conclusion about your passport, and check it again close to your appointment date.

UAE residents apply for US visitor visas on their own passports, so what matters is your nationality rather than your residence. A UAE residence visa, an Emirates ID and a long employment history in Dubai do not exempt an applicant whose nationality is on the covered list, and they do not place an applicant on it either.

If your nationality is covered, plan for three things. The interview may end with a bond requirement you cannot predict in advance; the visa you receive may be valid for months rather than years; and your initial entry and final departure must be through a commercial airport. A bond is set only where the officer has assessed you as otherwise eligible — but the mechanism is a refusal: the officer denies the visa under INA 221(g), and posting the bond is what overcomes that denial. If further review then finds you ineligible, the visa is denied and the bond is cancelled. Posting a bond is not an assurance the visa will issue, and the 221(g) refusal is a recorded refusal.

If your nationality is not covered, this rule does not change your application. The programme is limited to B-1/B-2 visitor visas, so student, work and other nonimmigrant categories are outside it. Visa Waiver Programme membership is also a categorical bar at country level — the rule states that “VWP participation will preclude a country from inclusion”.

1. 1Check the current covered-country list on travel.state.gov before you book anything, and check it again shortly before your interview — the list changes on a rolling basis.
2. 2Do not plan to apply for a waiver — the rule states there will be no bond waiver application process. Waiver authority rests with the Assistant Secretary for Consular Affairs, who may waive the requirement for an individual, for a whole country, or for a category of applicants where that is not contrary to the national interest; consular officers may separately request one in very limited circumstances, such as travel for US government employees or urgent humanitarian needs. You cannot apply, but you should check whether a category waiver already covers you.
3. 3Assume a short visa if you may be bonded, and build your travel plans around a validity measured in months rather than years.
4. 4Plan an air itinerary. If a bond is posted, your initial entry and your final departure must be through a commercial airport of entry or a CBP Preclearance location, and arrival by sea is not available. A trip to Canada or Mexico after that initial entry may still be permitted, with readmission by land, under the automatic revalidation provisions the rule cites (22 CFR 41.122(d)) — confirm before booking.
5. 5Prepare your application to the same standard as before. The bond is an additional condition on an otherwise-eligible applicant, not a substitute for a well-documented case.

This update is based on publicly available information from the US Department of State, published in the Federal Register, as of 7 August 2026. The Visa Bond Programme is in force: the final rule was published and took effect on 3 August 2026. The programme applies only to B-1/B-2 applicants who are nationals of countries the State Department designates as covered. The covered-country list is maintained by the State Department and changes on a rolling basis; this page does not reproduce it. This analysis is provided for informational purposes to help UAE residents understand the policy change. It does not constitute legal advice. For the latest official information, always refer to https://travel.state.gov.