Trump Admisnistration has updated the travel ban list and added another 20 countries. The ban will also impact students coming to the USA. Notably, the ban also includes Nigeria, which forms the 8th largest cohort of international students in US Universities.
The announcement made on December 16 expands the existing travel ban. The countries added include 20 nations as well as the Palestinian Authority. The travel ban will restrict all visas from these countries including the student and exchange visitor visas. Visas will be impacted for countries facing both full and partial bans.
List of Countries with US Travel Ban
Existing List of travel ban included countries of Afghanistan, Myanmar, Chad, Republic of Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Haiti, Iran, Libya, Somali, Sudan and Yemen.
Countries of Burundi, Cuba, Laos, Sierra Leone, Togo, Turkmeinistan and Venezuala were subjected to partial ban with increased restrictions.
To this list, Burkina Faso, Mali, Niger, South Suda and Syria were added for full ban. People from Palestinian Authority are also included in the travel ban as US does not recognise it as a nation.
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Partial restrictions including issuance of student and exchange visas were implemented on Angola, Antigua and Barbuda, Benin, Ivory Coast, Dominica, Gabon, Gambia, Malawi, Mauritania, Nigeria, Senegal, Tanzania, Tonga, Zambia and Zimbabwe.
As per the statement, existing visa holders, lawful permanent residents and some special visa categories will be exempt. The move was taken as a safety measure. In the statement issued, the travel ban intends to save US Citizens from foreign nationals “who intend to commit terrorist attacks, threaten our national security and public safety, incite hate crimes, or otherwise exploit the immigration laws for malevolent purposes.”
The countries added to the ban have been alleged with high rates of corruption as well as instances of overstay in the United States.
Impact of Ban on US Student Visas
The ban ends the visa issuance to students from these countries. Students will have to apply again and might be subjected to heightened scrutiny. The partial bans have halted the issuance of fresh student visas.
Notable of the lot is the introduction of Nigeria to the list. As mentioned earlier, Nigeria forms one of the larger contributors of international students to US. As per the NAFSA updates, Nigeria is the eight largest cohort of international students.
The ban has been widely criticised by NAFSA and other private players, calling it misguided. Experts have warned that these tactics of isolationism will only make US weaker and not stronger. They have further criticised the federal data on which the policy has been based, to be unreliable. They highlight that the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) systems are not synced properly and show erroneous overstay rates.