Trump Administration Targets Visa Overstays

Jackson Lewis P.C.
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President Donald Trump issued a Memorandum on April 22, 2019 aimed at reducing visa overstays – people who stay in the U.S. beyond the time authorized by their visas.  Assertions set forth in the Memorandum include:

  • For FY 2018, the Administration believes that there were 415,000 individuals in the U.S. who had overstayed on nonimmigrant visas; and
  • Twenty countries have overstay rates of over 10% with some as high as 20, 30 or 40%.

The President has proposed that the Secretaries of State and Homeland Security, within 120 days, make recommendations to limit visa overstays.  These recommendations could include:

  • Suspending or limiting the entry of individuals from countries with high overstay rates; and
  • Implementing admission bonds to improve compliance.

Steps already taken by the Administration to reduce overstays include:

  • Use of advanced biometrics at the border (although a full biometric entry-exit system is not expected to be in place until 2021);
  • Notifications to visa waiver program entrants of when their authorized stay ends and explaining the consequences of noncompliance; and
  • Requiring visa waiver countries with more than a 2% overstay rate to create public awareness campaigns warning of the consequences of their actions.

The President believes that lessening the overstay problem will free-up resources to handle the crisis of southern border security.  Some countries reported to have high overstay rates include: Chad, Djibouti, Eritrea, Liberia, the Solomon Islands, Benin and Burkina Faso. Other countries affected could include: Nigeria, Somalia, Sudan, Togo and Sierra Leone.

The Center for Migration Studies reported that in FY 2017 visa overstays outnumbered illegal border crossers 62% to 38%.

 

DISCLAIMER: Because of the generality of this update, the information provided herein may not be applicable in all situations and should not be acted upon without specific legal advice based on particular situations.

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