Travel Alert: DOS Interprets Presidential Travel Ban Proclamations as Restricting Visa Issuance

Category: COVID-19 Legal Resource Guide
Date: Aug. 20, 2020
Title: Travel Alert: DOS Interprets Presidential Travel Ban Proclamations as Restricting Visa Issuance

The Department of State (DOS) recently issued its interpretation of the travel bans established by presidential proclamations. Unfortunately, rather than providing clarity, the policy interpretation has created additional confusion. As a result, we strongly recommend that your foreign national employees who are currently in the United States in a valid nonimmigrant work-authorized status not leave the United States for the remainder of 2020. Those facing the most risk from international travel are individuals who do not have valid visas in their passports and who would need to apply for visas at U.S. consular posts abroad.

Although President Trump’s recent proclamations only suspend entry into the United States for certain visa categories and by visitors from certain countries, DOS has interpreted these measures as also restricting visa issuance. Therefore, applicants applying for visas in countries subject to ongoing U.S. travel bans (i.e., Schengen territory, the U.K., Ireland, Brazil, China and Iran) must obtain a national interest exception (NIE) in order to obtain new visas and enter the United States from these countries. Moreover, it is unclear from recent DOS guidance whether an individual is exempt from Proclamation 10052 if he/she was in the United States on June 24, even though the plain language of the proclamation exempts individuals who were present in the United States on this date from the ban. Until DOS issues further guidance, it is risky for someone who was in the United States on June 24, to travel abroad and apply for a visa in a different visa category (e.g., F-1 to H-1B), before Dec. 31. This is especially important to note for your recent beneficiaries of approved H-1B cap petitions. If any of your employees with nonimmigrant visas have an urgent need to travel abroad, please let us know immediately so we can discuss travel options and restrictions with you.