In what can only be described as immigration policy meets extortion racket, the Trump administration has announced that starting January 21, 2026, Bangladeshi nationals applying for U.S. business or tourist visas (B-1/B-2) will be required to post bonds of up to $15,000 just for the privilege of visiting America. Bangladesh becomes the latest and certainly not the last addition to a growing roster of countries whose citizens must now pay what amounts to a hefty deposit for the mere possibility of a two-week vacation in Disney World.
Welcome to the Visa Bond Pilot Program, Where Your Passport Determines Your Price of Admission
As of January 14, 2025, the Trump administration identified 38 countries whose nationals may be required to post bonds ranging from $5,000 to $15,000 to gain entry to the United States. According to the official travel.state.gov website, Bangladesh was formally added to this illustrious list, now subject to new visa bond requirements under a Temporary Final Rule (TFR) outlined in INA section 221(g)(3).
The Department of State rolled out this twelve-month pilot scheme in August 2024, targeting countries primarily in Africa, South America, and Asia. The stated goal? Deterring visa overstays by making tourism and business travel prohibitively expensive for nationals of countries with elevated overstay rates. The unstated goal? Well, let’s just say if you wanted to design a system that effectively prices out visitors from developing nations while maintaining plausible deniability about discriminatory intent, you would be hard-pressed to come up with something more efficient than this.
How the Bond System Works
Under the new requirements, nationals traveling with passports issued by countries in the pilot program who are otherwise eligible for a B-1/B-2 visa must now post a bond in one of three amounts: $5,000, $10,000, or $15,000.
Who decides how much you pay? A consular officer at your visa interview, based on their assessment of your “overstay risk.” No published criteria. No appeals process. Just one person’s judgment call determining whether you’re a $5,000 risk or a $15,000 risk.
It’s like airline dynamic pricing, except instead of paying more for a window seat, you’re paying more because someone decided you look like you might overstay your visa. What could possibly go wrong?
The Paperwork Nightmare
If you’re deemed worthy of this special treatment, you must:
- Submit DHS Form I-352 (Arrival-Departure Bond)
- Agree to bond terms through the Department of Treasury’s online payment platform, pay.gov
- Pay the bond amount determined by the consular officer
- Cross your fingers that you actually get the visa (because spoiler alert: paying the bond doesn’t guarantee visa issuance)
The State Department has helpfully cautioned applicants to only submit Form I-352 or pay bond money when specifically instructed by a consular officer, warning that “payments made without prior direction will not be refunded.”
The Nine Gates of America, the Required Ports of Entry (and Exit)
But wait, there’s more! Not only must you post a substantial bond, but you must also enter and exit the United States through one of nine designated ports of entry. Because apparently, making the system expensive wasn’t enough. It also needed to be geographically restrictive.
The approved airports are:
- Boston Logan International Airport (BOS)
- John F. Kennedy International Airport (JFK)
- Washington Dulles International Airport (IAD)
- Newark Liberty International Airport (EWR)
- Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport (ATL)
- Chicago O’Hare International Airport (ORD)
- Los Angeles International Airport (LAX)
- Toronto Pearson International Airport (YYZ)
- Montréal-Pierre Elliott Trudeau International Airport (YUL)
Notice anything interesting about that list? Two of the nine “required U.S. ports of entry” are in Canada. So, if you are a Bangladeshi national visiting the United States, you might need to fly through Toronto or Montreal first!
Failure to comply with these port-of-entry requirements may result in denied entry, or even better, an “unrecorded departure,” which would constitute a breach of bond compliance. So even if you leave on time, if you leave through the wrong airport, you would have violated the terms and can kiss your $15,000 goodbye.
Bond Compliance: The Rules of the Game
So, when do you get your money back, and when does Uncle Sam pocket it?
You Forfeit Your Bond If:
- You fail to depart the United States by your visa expiration date (i.e., overstay)
- You remain in the U.S. beyond authorized dates
- You adjust your status outside of non-immigrant classification (for example, by claiming asylum)
You Get Your Bond Back If:
- You depart the U.S. before your visa expires
- You don’t travel to the U.S. after posting the bond
- You’re denied entry at the port of entry (the silver lining here is that at least you get your money back when they reject you at the border!)
Posting a bond does not guarantee visa issuance. You can pay $15,000, submit all the paperwork, follow all the rules, and still be denied a visa. And if you paid the bond without being explicitly instructed to do so by a consular officer? No refund for you.
As The Diplomat aptly noted, “If the stated aim is to punish countries where overstaying regularly occurs, ‘punishment by percentage’ is ineffective.”
The Justification is the DHS Overstay Statistics
The Trump administration justifies this pilot program by pointing to the Department of Homeland Security’s 2024 fiscal year report, which analyzed visa overstay rates by country. According to the State Department, the program targets countries with “elevated overstay rates,” particularly among business and tourist visa holders, framing these patterns as a “compliance concern.”
The data, as reported by The Diplomat, is as follows:
Bangladesh:
- Overstay rate: 5.73%
- Number of overstays: Over 2,200
Bhutan:
- Overstay rate: 21.75% (highest in the world!)
- Number of overstays: 92
Brazil:
- Overstay rate: 1.25%
- Number of overstays: 21,300
If the stated aim is to reduce the absolute number of visa overstays, the actual burden on the immigration system, then Brazil represents a far greater challenge than Bangladesh, and Bhutan barely registers as a rounding error.
But if your actual goal is to restrict immigration from certain developing countries while maintaining deniability, then reliance on relative percentages over absolute numbers makes perfect sense. You can point to Bhutan’s 21.75% rate and say, “See? Data-driven policy!” while conveniently ignoring that Bhutan accounts for fewer overstays than a mid-sized college sends students to spring break.
As The Diplomat aptly noted, “If the stated aim is to punish countries where overstaying regularly occurs, ‘punishment by percentage’ is ineffective.”
The Broader Context: Immigration Restriction by Price Tag
This visa bond requirement is part of the Trump administration’s broader strategy to reduce both legal and illegal immigration to the United States. By imposing what are, for many nationals of developing countries, prohibitively expensive entry requirements, the administration effectively restricts travel without having to publicly announce a travel ban.
On a practical level, a Bangladeshi family of four seeking to visit the United States for a two-week vacation, the bond requirement alone could total $60,000 (assuming each family member is assigned a $15,000 bond). Add to that:
- Visa application fees
- Airfare
- Accommodation
- Food and activities
- Travel insurance
You’re easily looking at $75,000-$80,000 for a family vacation to the United States, and that’s before accounting for the risk that you might be denied entry anyway, in which case you’d only get the bond back, not the thousands spent on non-refundable plane tickets and hotels.
For context, according to World Bank data, Bangladesh’s GDP per capita is approximately $2,500. The maximum bond amount of $15,000 represents six years of average annual income for a Bangladeshi citizen.
Imagine if the situation were reversed: What if Bangladesh required American tourists to post a bond equal to six times the U.S. per capita GDP (roughly $80,000 × 6 = $480,000) just to visit Dhaka for a week? The State Department would file a formal protest within hours.
Who Else Made the List?
The full roster of 38 countries indicates the list includes nations primarily from:
- Africa (multiple countries with elevated overstay percentages but relatively small absolute numbers)
- South America (excluding major economies like Brazil, which has higher absolute overstay numbers but lower percentages)
- Asia (including Bangladesh, and according to The Diplomat’s reporting, recent additions include Tonga and Kyrgyzstan)
The pattern is clear: The countries on this list are predominantly developing nations whose citizens already face significant barriers to obtaining U.S. visas. The bond requirement adds another layer of exclusion.
When “Data-Driven” Policy Produces Discriminatory Outcomes
Let’s be generous and assume the Trump administration genuinely wants to reduce visa overstays rather than simply restricting immigration from certain countries. Even granting that charitable interpretation, the visa bond approach raises serious questions about fairness and effectiveness.
Problem 1: Punishing Individuals for Statistical Trends
A 5.73% overstay rate means that 94.27% of Bangladeshi B-1/B-2 visa holders comply with their visa terms and depart on time. The bond requirement punishes the 94% who follow the rules because of the 6% who do not. Collective punishment based on nationality
Problem 2: Disproportionate Impact
The bond amounts represent vastly different economic burdens depending on the applicant’s country of origin. A $15,000 bond is:
- 23% of U.S. median household income (manageable, if annoying)
- 600% of Bangladesh median household income (utterly prohibitive for most)
So, while an American traveling abroad might shrug off a $15,000 refundable bond, for a Bangladeshi family, it represents an insurmountable barrier.
Problem 3: The Circular Logic Trap
Countries with lower visa approval rates (often developing nations) naturally have higher overstay percentages because:
- Fewer visas are issued (stricter screening)
- Only people with compelling reasons to return home get visas
- But some percentage will always overstay
- That percentage is calculated against a smaller denominator
So, countries that already face stricter scrutiny end up with higher overstay percentages, which then justifies even more restrictions, which further reduces the denominator, which raises the percentage…It’s a self-fulfilling prophecy that disproportionately impacts developing nations.
How Long will the Pilot Program run?
The pilot program is scheduled to run for twelve months from its August 2024 launch, which means it’s set to conclude around August 2025. For Bangladeshi nationals hoping to visit the United States, whether for business, tourism, the FIFA World Cup, family visits, or educational conferences, the message is clear: You’re not really welcome, but if you can afford to pay handsomely for the privilege and jump through arbitrary hoops, we might let you in.
The Trump administration’s expansion of visa bond requirements to include Bangladesh and dozens of other developing nations represents immigration policy at its most cynically effective: It restricts travel from targeted countries while maintaining the veneer of data-driven objectivity.
By focusing on overstay percentages rather than absolute numbers, the administration can claim they’re targeting “high-risk” countries while conveniently ignoring that wealthier nations contribute far more overstays in total. By setting bond amounts that represent manageable sums for Americans but prohibitive costs for citizens of developing nations, they achieve de facto travel restrictions without the political backlash of explicit bans.
And by requiring entry and exit through just nine designated ports–two of which aren’t even in the United States they add geographic obstacles on top of financial ones, ensuring that even those who can afford the bonds face logistical challenges.
Sources:
- U.S. Department of State, travel.state.gov, Visa Bond Requirements
- The Diplomat, “US Expands Visa Bond List to Include Bangladesh, Tonga, and Kyrgyzstan, Among Other Asian Countries”
- U.S. Department of Homeland Security, 2024 Fiscal Year Overstay Report
- Immigration and Nationality Act (INA) Section 221(g)(3)
- World Bank GDP per capita data
The post Bangladesh Joins the “Pay-to-Play” Visa Club as the Trump Administration Introduces a $15,000 Bond for Tourist Visas appeared first on Mona Shah & Partners Global.