President Trump Orders Enhanced Visa and Travel Restrictions


The proclamation limits visa issuance and entry into the United States by nationals of eight countries: Chad, Iran, Libya, North Korea, Somalia, Syria, Venezuela, and Yemen.

On September 25, US President Donald Trump announced in a presidential proclamation (the “Proclamation”) a series of enhanced national security measures that suspend travel to the United States by foreign nationals from a list of eight countries whose identity-management and information-sharing practices were found to be deficient under the provisions of Executive Order (EO) 13780.

This prior EO, signed on March 6, 2017, suspended entry into the United States by foreign nationals of six countries pending review of their information-sharing practices and issuance of a mandated report by the secretary of the US Department of Homeland Security (DHS) establishing baseline requirements for (1) information sharing about identity management, (2) information sharing about national security and public safety, and (3) national security and public safety risk factors.

The Proclamation drops Sudan from the original group of six but adds three new countries: Chad, North Korea, and Venezuela. This reflects the US government’s findings that these eight countries do not meet the minimum traveler vetting and information-sharing requirements. The report also found Iraq to be inadequate under the baseline criteria, but entry restrictions were determined not to be warranted due to the close diplomatic ties between the United States and Iraq. However, nationals of Iraq who seek to enter the United States may be subject to additional scrutiny.

Country-Specific Restrictions

The country-specific visa and entry restrictions imposed by the Proclamation are the following:

Exceptions

The Proclamation notes that, subject to certain exceptions shown below, the suspensions of and limitations on entry shall apply only to foreign nationals of the designated countries who (1) are outside of the United States on the applicable effective date, (2) do not have a valid visa on the applicable effective date, and (3) do not qualify for a visa or other valid travel document. DHS has confirmed that the Proclamation is expressly limited to individuals who do not have a valid visa on the effective date of the Proclamation.

Notwithstanding the travel limitations described above, the suspension of entry pursuant to the Proclamation will not apply to the following:

The Proclamation describes the restrictions imposed upon nationals of the eight affected countries as “conditional” and states that they may be lifted depending upon future cooperation with the US government’s efforts to impose enhanced security practices—such as adopting electronic passports, sharing criminal data, reporting lost/stolen passports, and providing data on known and suspected terrorists.

Effective Dates

The implementation of the Proclamation will follow this two-phase process:

Phase 1

From 3:30 pm EDT on Sunday, September 24, 2017 until 12:01 am EDT on Wednesday, October 18, 2017:

Phase 2

Beginning at 12:01 am EDT on Wednesday, October 18, 2017:


[1] The prohibition on the entry of “immigrants” applies only to persons holding immigrant visas and seeking to enter the United States with such visas for the first time. It does not apply, as discussed below, to persons holding permanent resident cards. 


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National Law Review, Volume VII, Number 269