U.S. Department of State spokesperson Tammy Bruce announced at a press conference on Tuesday: “Under the Immigration and Nationality Act, consistent with Executive Order 14159, beginning August 20th, nationals of Malawi and Zambia applying for B1, B2, business, and tourist visas will be required to post a bond of up to $15,000.”
She added that the measure is intended to “deter visa overstays.”
Note: Section 14 of Trump’s EO reads: “Visa Bonds. The Secretary of Treasury shall take all appropriate action, in coordination with the Secretary of State and the Secretary of Homeland Security, to establish a system to facilitate the administration of all bonds that the Secretary of State or the Secretary of Homeland Security may lawfully require to administer the provisions of the INA.”
Tammy Bruce: “Beginning August 20, nationals of Malawi and Zambia applying for B1, B2, business ,and tourist visas will be required to post a bond of up to $15,000.” pic.twitter.com/YYGA3wIA3b
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) August 5, 2025
According to the press release, the Department of State has “identified nationals” of Malawi and Zambia as subject to visa bonds “based on their B1/B2 overstay rate per the Department of Homeland Security’s FY 2023 Overstay Report.”
That FY 2023 DHS report shows that Malawi, which has one of the lowest per capita incomes in the world, had 237 overstays out of 1,655 expected departures (an approximate 14% overstay rate). Zambia had 80 overstays out of 501 expected departures (also about a 14% overstay rate).
While the majority of countries with the highest overstay rates in U.S. are African, the data also show that richer countries including Saudi Arabia had 433 overstays out of 45,786 expected departures and United Arab Emirates had 628 overstays out of 20,393 expected departures — smaller percentages but larger volumes of overstayers.
According to that DHS Report, there was a “total overstay rate of 1.45 percent
(565,155) out of the overall expected departures of in-scope travelers in FY 2023.”