US Expands Visa Limitations: What You Need To Know

Highlights

• Since 2025, the U.S. has implemented a variety of visa limitations for foreign nationals, including travel restrictions, visa bonds, adjudicative holds, and the review of prior admissions.
• These limitations now affect nationals of a total of 57 countries, as well as individuals holding documents issued by Palestinian authority.
• Employers with an international workforce are advised to carefully review active restrictions on a rolling basis to advise employees accordingly and avoid any lapse in work authorization.
• The additional scrutiny and series of restrictions are expected to lengthen processing times across all case types.

The new year brought with it a continuation of restrictions issued in 2025 with the U.S. Department of State expanding its visa limitations to include adjudicative holds and bonds in addition to existing visa issuance and travel restrictions.

Travel Restrictions

In 2025, the Departments of State, Justice, and Homeland Security collaborated to follow a directive to identify countries with inadequate vetting and screening for purposes of visa issuance and admission. The parties responsible submitted the final report in April, setting the stage for the White House to announce travel limitations for nationals in June, dividing the restrictions into two categories:partial and full.

Less than a month ago, on Dec. 16, the United States cited continued security concerns when announcing an expansion of entry restrictions to include additional countries, as well as holders of Palestinian-issued travel documents.These changes, heightening restrictions for most countries previously subject to partial restrictions while lessening restrictions for Turkmenistan, went into effect as of Jan. 1.

Adjudicative Holds

On Dec. 2, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Service (USCIS) directed its employees to cease processing asylum applications, as well as cases filed on behalf of citizens of 19 countries. The order impacted decisions, as well as subsequent ceremonies, for the identified case types, including business and family immigrant and nonimmigrant petitions, naturalization, and adjustments of status, among others.

USCIS recently expanded its adjudication hold policy to reflect the updates to the list of travel restrictions that took effect on Jan. 1.The adjudicative pause impacts individuals holding dual nationality, meaning USCIS will not issue a decision if the individual holds any of the nationalities identified through the most recent list. According to USCIS, the adjudicative hold policy will apply if the immigration benefit application lists a "travel ban country" as the foreign national's country of birth or country of citizenship. As such, the policy for pending applications will affect a larger group of foreign nationals than the travel ban itself.

These USCIS screening efforts focus upon identifying known and suspected terrorists, involvement in criminal activity, threats to community safety, and the inability to establish identity. More specifically, the December Policy Memorandum instructed officers to focus on four key areas of review:

• Select classifications under the Terrorist Screening Dataset (TSDS) Known or Suspected Terrorist (KST) lists;
• Connections to activity involving 212(a)(3)(A), (B), or (F), or 237(a)(4)(A) or (B) of the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA);
• Connections to activity posing a risk of harm or danger to the community, including criminal conduct identified in INA 101(a)(43), 212(a)(1)(A)(iii), 212(a)(2), 237(a)(2), or 237(a)(4)(A)(ii); and
• An inability to establish one's identity.

Review of Prior Decisions

In addition to the heightened scrutiny of pending matters, USCIS announced last month that it will identify and review all previously approved benefit requests for nationals of the listed countries who entered the United States on or after Jan. 20, 2021. The guidance defined an entry as admission, inspection, parole, or entry without inspection, but did not specifically limit the screening to an initial entry.

The expansion of the list of travel restrictions also applies to the nationalities to be impacted by the screening and review of previously approved benefit requests.

Visa Bonds

On Jan. 6, the U.S. Department of State identified nationals of select countries as requiring a visa bond for the B-1/B-2 visa category. This announcement followed the 2025 visa bond pilot program, which served as the sequel to the attempt in 2020 to initiate a six-month visa bond pilot program.

Regardless of the location of the application, any citizen or national traveling on a passport issued by one of the identified countries will be required to post a bond as well as submit Form I-352 and agree to the terms of the bond through the Department of the Treasury's online payment platform, Pay.gov. Set in amounts of $5,000, $10,000, or $15,000, the exact amount of the bond will be determined at the visa interview.

Additionally, any visa holder required to pay such bond will be prohibited from entering or exiting the U.S. through any port other than Boston Logan International Airport, John F. Kennedy International Airport, or Washington Dulles International Airport.

Summary of Active Visa Limitations

The compilation of restrictions of various types essentially limit the entry of nationals of 57 countries, as well as those holding documents issued by Palestinian authority. In short, if a nationality has been identified in the list of travel restrictions by the U.S. Department of State, any benefit application pending with USCIS will be subject to an adjudicative hold. Further, any decision issued or admission granted on behalf of any national of the identified countries, as well as those with documents issued by Palestinian authorities, since Jan. 20, 2021, will be subject to further review.

To serve as a guide, Barnes & Thornburg LLP provides the following summary of published restrictions as of Jan. 7, 2026:

Employers with an international workforce must carefully review active restrictions on a rolling basis to advise employees accordingly and avoid any lapse in work authorization. In addition, detailed guidance must be shared with employees regarding international travel.

As with any major policy change, litigation to interrupt such changes remains possible.

Barnes & Thornburg will continue to publish information as it becomes available and encourages employers to closely review U.S. immigration matters in connection with counsel to identify affected employees. For a consultation regarding your international employee population, please contact the Barnes & Thornburg attorney with whom you work.

The content of this article is intended to provide a general guide to the subject matter. Specialist advice should be sought about your specific circumstances.