WASHINGTON—The Trump administration is considering placing a bond of $100,000 on some green-card seekers applying at U.S. consulates abroad, according to people familiar with the plans.
The State Department is developing the proposal as part of the Trump administration’s continuing efforts to limit immigration by foreigners of limited means, and ensure that any immigrants who do move to the U.S. can support themselves.
While the idea is still under discussion, the talks have centered on applying hefty bonds on applicants for immigrant visas—people who are applying to permanently immigrate to the U.S. and would receive a green card upon arrival. Some State Department officials have floated the $100,000 price tag, said people familiar with the plans. The bond amount could vary based on individual cases and could land above or below that figure, some of those people said.
Officials are considering piloting the idea with a small number of countries as a proof of concept, according to people familiar with the matter.
Several people familiar with the discussions said applicants would likely pay the bond and receive the money back only after becoming U.S. citizens, a process that takes at least five years. That way, the bond would serve as collateral if a green-card holder moved to the country and proved unable to support themselves. An immigrant’s relatives also could post the bond for them, the people said.
“President Trump has made clear that those who wish to immigrate to the United States must be financially self-sufficient,” State Department spokesperson Tommy Pigott said. Pigott said the department was exploring existing authorities under the Immigration and Nationality Act to require certain visa applicants to post a bond “as a way to demonstrate they have access to the funds needed to support themselves.”
Immigrant visas are most often used by family members of U.S. citizens, such as spouses, parents or siblings. They are less often employed by foreign companies, which typically first hire applicants on temporary visas such as the H-1B before eventually sponsoring them for green cards, when they already live in the U.S. The State Department typically issues about half a million such visas a year, though that number is likely to decline significantly this year.
The high cost of the bonds would likely have a deterrent effect, according to Sharvari Dalal-Dheini, head of government reactions at the American Immigration Lawyers Association.
“The goal of bonds is, it seems, to keep out a certain type of immigrant,” Dalal-Dheini said. “We’re making our system pay-to-play: only the wealthy can come visit, or reunite with family, or seek a better life for themselves.”
Earlier this year, the administration paused immigrant-visa processing for 75 countries, in a similar effort to limit immigration by low-income foreigners. The pause, which has been in effect since January, affects such populous countries as Pakistan, Nigeria and Brazil. Under the pause, foreigners applying to immigrate to the U.S. haven’t been able to receive an answer on their visa applications, though the State Department is still processing temporary visas, such as for tourists and students. Officials don’t think the pause will be lifted even if the bond policy takes effect.
The bond plan is sure to come under criticism from immigration advocates, as most foreigners looking to move to the U.S. are paid lower salaries than Americans and wouldn’t be able to afford the bond, even if it eventually would be paid back. Most immigrants move to the U.S. at least in part to seek higher-paying work.
Since the first Trump administration, the president’s immigration advisers, central among them Stephen Miller, have looked for ways to prevent immigrants from becoming permanent residents or U.S. citizens if it appeared likely they would use public assistance. Immigrants aren’t permitted to enroll in most federal benefit programs until they have held a green card for at least five years.
Those efforts culminated in a 2019 policy known as the Public Charge Rule, which created a new test that green card applicants needed to clear. The test weighed their net worth as well as factors such as their level of education, English proficiency and whether they had a disability. The policy was in effect during Trump’s final year in office, though its impacts were muted because most immigration came to a halt in the first year of the Covid pandemic. It hasn’t been formally reintroduced in Trump’s second term.
Still, visa officers have been given guidance to look for similar factors when screening visa applicants, including scrutinizing their health records.
The $100,000 proposal would expand a bond pilot program the State Department has been testing since last August on applicants for tourist visas. Under the pilot, tourist-visa applicants from the African countries of Malawi and Zambia were required to post a refundable bond of up to $15,000, forfeited if they overstay or apply for another immigration status after arriving, such as asylum. The list since has been expanded to 50 countries, most of them also in Africa.
The State Department has described the program as an early success, saying roughly 97% of visa holders who paid bonds didn’t overstay their visas. But the number of people granted visas has been sharply cut, according to people familiar with the matter. State Department officials eventually plan to expand that bond program to all tourists via applicants outside of visa waiver countries, the people said.
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