Fans from five African World Cup countries will no longer face $15,000 bond to enter US

The Trump administration is suspending a requirement that would have required visitors from five World Cup-qualified countries to pay a bond of up to $15,000 in order to enter the United States for the tournament.

The US state department imposed the bond requirement last year for countries that it said had high rates of people overstaying their visas and other security issues as part of a broader crackdown on immigration. Travelers to the US from 50 countries are required to pay the bond, and five of those countries have qualified for the World Cup – Algeria, Cabo Verde, Côte d’Ivoire, Senegal and Tunisia.

However, fans from those countries have been granted a temporary reprieve if they hold a valid World Cup ticket.

“The United States is excited to organize the biggest and best Fifa World Cup in history,” Mora Namdar, the assistant secretary of state for consular affairs, told the Associated Press on Wednesday. “We are waiving visa bonds for qualified fans who bought World Cup tickets” and opted in to the Fifa Pass system that allows expedited visa appointments.

The waiver is a rare loosening of immigration requirements under the administration and will ease travel burdens for at least some visitors to the US for the World Cup, which begins 11 June and is co-hosted by the US, Canada and Mexico.

World Cup team players, coaches and some staff already were exempt from the bond requirement as part of the administration’s orders to prioritize the processing of visas for the tournament. Ordinary fans, even if they had confirmed tickets, had not been exempt until Wednesday.

The administration has taken dramatic steps to restrict immigration in ways that critics say are incongruous with the unifying message that the World Cup is supposed to project.

For instance, the administration has barred travelers from Iran and Haiti, though players, coaches and other support personnel are exempt. Travelers from Côte d’Ivoire and Senegal, who have also qualified for the World Cup, face partial restrictions under an expanded version of that travel ban.

Foreign travelers are also facing new requirements to submit their social media histories, while the Trump administration had deployed US Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents at airports recently when Transportation Security Administration personnel were not being paid. Those measures prompted Amnesty International and human rights groups to issue a “World Cup travel advisory” that warns travelers about the climate in the US.

In a report this month, the main advocacy group for US hotels blamed visa barriers and other geopolitical issues for “significantly suppressing international demand,” leading to hotel bookings for the tournament that are far below what had initially been anticipated.

The American Hotel + Lodging Association said travelers are concerned about potentially lengthy visa wait times and increased fees, along with uncertainty about how they’re being processed to enter the US.

The bond requirements are part of the administration’s larger effort to clamp down on migrants who travel to the US on temporary visas but then overstay them. Visa applicants from the affected countries are required to pay $5,000, $10,000 or $15,000 in bonds, which will be refunded if the traveler complies with the terms of the visa or if the visa application is denied.

As of early April, the number of World Cup fans affected by the bond requirement was believed to be relatively small, perhaps only about 250 people, US officials told AP. But they said that number was changing rapidly as more people buy tickets and some with tickets opt against traveling. Fifa had requested the waiver, and the issue was the topic of discussion at multiple meetings in Washington for several months, the officials said.