Having previously hinted he might crack down on foreign visitors, late on Wednesday President Trump signed a proclamation banning nationals from 12 countries from traveling to the US, and introduced travel restrictions on seven others, reintroducing a controversial immigration policy that came to define the early days of his first term.
The ban will completely bar travel to the U.S. by citizens of the following countries: Afghanistan, Myanmar (formerly Burma), Chad, The Republic of the Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Haiti, Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan and Yemen. Citizens from an additional list of countries will be barred from permanently immigrating to the U.S., along with applying for tourist or student visas; those countries are Burundi, Cuba, Laos, Sierra Leone, Togo, Turkmenistan, and Venezuela. Citizens from these seven countries will still be eligible for other temporary visas, such as the H-1B or other temporary work visas.
The ban only applies to people currently outside the U.S., though anyone currently in the U.S. who leaves could get stuck abroad as a result of it. It also excludes any nationals of these countries who hold green cards, along with anyone traveling to the US for coming major sporting events, including the World Cup in 2026 and the Olympics in 2028. Afghans who receive special immigrant visas, a special visa reserved for Afghans who worked alongside the U.S. military during its two-decade presence in Afghanistan, are also exempt.