{"id":16455,"date":"2026-03-18T12:55:51","date_gmt":"2026-03-18T16:55:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/isso\/?p=16455"},"modified":"2026-03-18T12:55:51","modified_gmt":"2026-03-18T16:55:51","slug":"b-1-visa-bond-pilot-program-expanded-again","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/isso\/2026\/03\/18\/b-1-visa-bond-pilot-program-expanded-again\/","title":{"rendered":"B-1 Visa Bond Pilot Program Expanded Again"},"content":{"rendered":"

The US Department of State (DOS) will add 12 more countries (Cambodia, Ethiopia, Georgia, Grenada, Lesotho, Mauritius, Mongolia, Mozambique, Nicaragua, Papua New Guinea, Seychelles, and Tunisia ) to the B-1\/B-2 Visa Bond Pilot Program, bringing the total countries in the pilot to 50 effective April 2, 2026. Nationals of subject countries (see full list below) applying for a B-1 (business) or B-2 (tourist) visa (or B-1\/B-2 visa) must pay a bond of $5K, $10K, or $15K before being issued a B-1 or B-2 visa. This pilot program only applies to B visitor visas and not any other nonimmigrant visa categories however, nationals from many of the same countries are also prohibited from obtaining a nonimmigrant visas during the current travel ban<\/a>. As always, please contact your ISSO advisor with any questions regarding visas and travel.<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. Algeria (January 21, 2026)<\/li>\n
  2. Angola\u00a0(January 21, 2026)<\/li>\n
  3. Antigua and Barbuda (January 21, 2026)<\/li>\n
  4. Bangladesh (January 21, 2026)<\/li>\n
  5. Benin (January 21, 2026)<\/li>\n
  6. Bhutan (January 1, 2026)<\/li>\n
  7. Botswana (January 1, 2026)<\/li>\n
  8. Burundi (January 21, 2026)<\/li>\n
  9. Cabo Verde (January 21, 2026)<\/li>\n
  10. Cambodia (April 2, 2026)<\/li>\n
  11. Central African Republic (January 1, 2026)<\/li>\n
  12. Cote D\u2019Ivoire (January 21, 2026)<\/li>\n
  13. Cuba (January 21, 2026)<\/li>\n
  14. Djibouti (January 21, 2026)<\/li>\n
  15. Dominica (January 21, 2026)<\/li>\n
  16. Ethiopia (April 2, 2026)<\/li>\n
  17. Fiji (January 21, 2026)<\/li>\n
  18. Gabon (January 21, 2026)<\/li>\n
  19. The Gambia (October 11, 2025)<\/li>\n
  20. Georgia (April 2, 2026)<\/li>\n
  21. Grenada (April 2, 2026)<\/li>\n
  22. Guinea (January 1, 2026)<\/li>\n
  23. Guinea-Bissau (January 1, 2026)<\/li>\n
  24. Kyrgyz Republic (January 21, 2026)<\/li>\n
  25. Lesotho (April 2, 2026)<\/li>\n
  26. Malawi (August 20, 2025)<\/li>\n
  27. Mauritania (October 23, 2025)<\/li>\n
  28. Mauritius (April 2, 2026)<\/li>\n
  29. Mongolia (April 2, 2026)<\/li>\n
  30. Mozambique (April 2, 2026)<\/li>\n
  31. Namibia (January 1, 2026)<\/li>\n
  32. Nepal (January 21, 2026)<\/li>\n
  33. Nicaragua (April 2, 2026)<\/li>\n
  34. Nigeria (January 21, 2026)<\/li>\n
  35. Papua New Guinea (April 2, 2026)<\/li>\n
  36. Sao Tome and Principe (October 23, 2025)<\/li>\n
  37. Senegal (January 21, 2026)<\/li>\n
  38. Seychelles (April 2, 2026)<\/li>\n
  39. Tajikistan (January 21, 2026)<\/li>\n
  40. Tanzania (October 23, 2025)<\/li>\n
  41. Togo (January 21, 2026)<\/li>\n
  42. Tonga (January 21, 2026)<\/li>\n
  43. Tunisia (April 2, 2026)<\/li>\n
  44. Turkmenistan (January 1, 2026)<\/li>\n
  45. Tuvalu (January 21, 2026)<\/li>\n
  46. Uganda (January 21, 2026)<\/li>\n
  47. Vanuatu (January 21, 2026)<\/li>\n
  48. Venezuela (January 21, 2026)<\/li>\n
  49. Zambia (August 20, 2025)<\/li>\n
  50. Zimbabwe (January 21, 2026)<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    The US Department of State (DOS) will add 12 more countries (Cambodia, Ethiopia, Georgia, Grenada, Lesotho, Mauritius, Mongolia, Mozambique, Nicaragua, Papua New Guinea, Seychelles, and Tunisia ) to the B-1\/B-2 Visa Bond Pilot Program, bringing the total countries in the pilot to 50 effective April 2, 2026. Nationals of subject countries (see full list below) […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9593,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[72],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/isso\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16455"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/isso\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/isso\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/isso\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/9593"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/isso\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16455"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/isso\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16455\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":16456,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/isso\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16455\/revisions\/16456"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/isso\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16455"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/isso\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16455"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/isso\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16455"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}