The Trump administration will not require World Cup ticket holders from countries flagged for high rates of visa overstays to pay expensive bonds to enter the United States, a U.S. State Department official said on Wednesday.
The administration last year began requiring visitors from some countries to pay bonds of up to $15,000 to obtain tourist visas to the U.S., saying the steep deposit was needed to prevent visa overstays. Fifty countries are currently subject to the bond requirement, which was expanded this year.
Five of the 50 countries subject to the visa bonds qualified to participate in the World Cup: Algeria, Cape Verde, Ivory Coast, Senegal and Tunisia.
Mora Namdar, the top official in the State Department's consular affairs division, said the U.S. would waive the bond requirement for ticket-holding fans who had already registered through a special system to expedite their visa processing. Qualifying team members and staff can also have the bonds waived, Namdar said.
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