- The United States has made visa bond requirements permanent for visitor applicants from fifty covered countries.
- Consular officers can demand up to twenty thousand dollars as a refundable deposit for visitor visas.
- Starting September fifteenth, twenty twenty-six, the U.S. will cap initial admission periods for student and journalist visas.
The United States made its visa bond requirement permanent on August 3, 2026, and the new rule can force some visitor applicants to post as much as $20,000 before getting a visa. The covered list reaches 50 countries, including Bangladesh, Bhutan, Cambodia, Georgia, Kyrgyz Republic and Nepal.
Consular officers can now set the deposit at $10,000, $15,000 or $20,000 for covered B-1 and B-2 applicants. The money is refundable. Still, it has to be posted first.
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The Federal Register notice said the department’s earlier pilot had already built a record for the policy.
"Consular officers may require covered nonimmigrant visa applicants to post a bond of up to $20,000 as a condition of visa issuance. The 2025 visa bond pilot. has provided sufficient data to suggest that a visa bond programme is an effective tool for enforcing compliance."
That notice gave the department its public case. It tied the bond to compliance.
A separate move landed on July 16, 2026. The Department of Homeland Security moved to replace open-ended stays with fixed admission periods for F, J, and I visas, a change that affects foreign students, exchange visitors and journalists.
The final rule followed on July 17, 2026. It takes effect September 15, 2026, and caps initial admission at 4 years. The clock will not run forever.
India and China are still absorbing heavy demand
The visa changes arrive as demand from Asia remains intense. The U.S. Mission in India issued a record one million visas in fiscal year 2024, and first-time B-1/B-2 interviews in New Delhi were still running 150 to 300 days late as of July 2026.
A July 21, 2026 update put New Delhi B-1/B-2 waits at 8 months. Beijing stood at 2.5 months. Those gaps show how uneven the pressure remains.
China answered by calling the new rules discriminatory
China reacted on July 17, 2026, calling the new student, exchange and journalist rules "discriminatory" and warning of possible countermeasures. The government also said it was considering reciprocity after the U.S. narrowed visa duration for Chinese journalists to 90 days.
The response was unusually direct. It stayed that way.
The bond rule covers countries far beyond Asia, but several Asian names are already on the list, and the student rule reaches a different set of travelers altogether. Together, the measures tighten two of the routes most often used by visitors, students and journalists from the region.
September 15, 2026 is the next hard date. After that, the student rule takes effect, and initial admission for F and J visas will stop at 4 years.
