Zambia’s government voiced concern on Friday about the “unnecessary financial strain” that would be caused by a new rule requiring its citizens to\u00a0pay bonds\u00a0of up to $15,000 to obtain some types of U.S. visas.<\/p>\n
Starting August 20, U.S. President\u00a0Donald Trump’s administration will require applicants from countries with high rates of visa overstays – including Zambia and neighbouring Malawi – to post a bond of $5,000, $10,000 or $15,000 under a\u00a0pilot programme\u00a0for some tourist and business visas.<\/p>\n
“While the (U.S.) government has a prerogative to initiate policy changes, the Zambian government views this development with serious concern, given its potential economic implications on trade, investment, tourism and people-to-people exchanges,” Zambian Foreign Minister Mulambo Haimbe said in a statement.<\/p>\n
“This includes the unnecessary financial strain on Zambian nationals.”<\/p>\n
The move comes as Trump cracks down on illegal immigration, boosting resources to secure the\u00a0border with Mexico\u00a0and\u00a0arresting people\u00a0in the U.S. illegally.<\/p>\n
The bond amount will be returned if the applicant leaves the U.S. within the allowed window of time and complies with all the terms of their visa status.<\/p>\n
Even so, average household income in Zambia is roughly $150 per month, according to government data, making the bond a huge sum in the Southern African country.<\/p>\n
“For most Zambians… this bond is not just unaffordable, it’s laughable,” said Anthony Mukwita, a Zambian international relations analyst and former diplomat in a Facebook post.<\/p>\n
“It could drill a borehole and bring clean water to an entire village,” Mukwita said. “Instead, it is being used to buy a chance at an American dream, a dream that’s increasingly looking like a gated community with a very expensive entry fee.”<\/p>\n
In Malawi, Foreign Minister Nancy Tembo met a delegation from the U.S. embassy on Thursday to discuss the policy.<\/p>\n
“The minister expressed concern on the policy’s impact on law-abiding Malawian travellers and overall bilateral diplomatic relations,” the Foreign Ministry said in a statement.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Zambia’s government voiced concern on Friday about the “unnecessary financial strain” that would be caused by a new rule requiring its citizens to\u00a0pay bonds\u00a0of up to $15,000 to obtain some types of U.S. visas. Starting August 20, U.S. President\u00a0Donald Trump’s administration will require applicants from countries with high rates of visa overstays – including Zambia […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":12874,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"iawp_total_views":0,"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":{"format":"standard","override":[{"template":"1","parallax":"1","fullscreen":"1","layout":"right-sidebar","sidebar":"default-sidebar","second_sidebar":"default-sidebar","sticky_sidebar":"1","share_position":"top","share_float_style":"share-monocrhome","show_featured":"1","show_post_meta":"1","show_post_author_image":"1","show_post_date":"1","post_date_format":"default","post_date_format_custom":"Y\/m\/d","show_post_reading_time":"0","post_reading_time_wpm":"300","post_calculate_word_method":"str_word_count","show_zoom_button":"0","zoom_button_out_step":"2","zoom_button_in_step":"3","show_post_tag":"1","number_popup_post":"1","show_post_related":"1","show_inline_post_related":"1"}],"image_override":[{"single_post_thumbnail_size":"crop-500","single_post_gallery_size":"crop-500"}],"trending_post_position":"meta","trending_post_label":"Trending","sponsored_post_label":"Sponsored by","disable_ad":"0","subtitle":""},"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"jnews_override_counter":{"view_counter_number":"0","share_counter_number":"0","like_counter_number":"0","dislike_counter_number":"0"},"footnotes":""},"categories":[32,2362,33,30],"tags":[4268,394],"class_list":["post-17264","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-economy","category-featured","category-politics","category-southern-africa","tag-us-visa-bond","tag-zambia"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/qiraatafrican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17264","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/qiraatafrican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/qiraatafrican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qiraatafrican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qiraatafrican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17264"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/qiraatafrican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17264\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qiraatafrican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/12874"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/qiraatafrican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17264"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qiraatafrican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17264"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qiraatafrican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17264"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}