Since America is revisiting its immigration policies, it’s time to revisit the visas we grant to non-immigrants, since the concerns their entries raise often overlap with immigrant issues.
From 2000 to 2008, the United States issued between 5 and 8 million non-immigrant visas a year. From 2010 through 2019, before 2020 when the world fell down the COVID rat hole, the number ranged between 7 and 11 million. Nonimmigrant (temporary) visas are obtained by applying at a US Embassy or Consulate abroad. With most countries, the US has a visa reciprocity schedule that allows for the issuance of multiple-year visas, up to ten years for nationals from around 110 countries.
In 2000, there were 33.7 million nonimmigrant admissions into the US, with about 10% of them being individuals making multiple trips. By 2019, that number had more than doubled to 81.6 million. Admission includes those with visas, those nationals of 42 countries allowed in under the visa waiver program, and holders of Mexican border crossing cards (BCC). People obtain entry by presenting themselves at a designated point of entry (air, sea, land), where an Immigration Officer can admit them.
U.S. Customs and Borders. Rawpixel public domain.
The vast majority of nonimmigrant visas issued and admissions granted are for visitors for business or pleasure, the B-1/B-2 category. Each entry is limited, usually to 90 or 180 days. The rest of the visa categories cover a wide range—diplomats, air crews, students, investors, certain relatives, workers of all sorts, and a smattering of infrequently used classifications.
One thing all nonimmigrant admissions (except for fiancés and certain relatives) have in common is that they assure the Consular Officer issuing the visa, and the Immigration officer granting the admission, that the person entering has a home abroad that s/he intends to return to. And the officer is convinced.
When people immigrate to the United States, they must have a medical clearance. This process is established to protect the American population’s health. This should also be made a requirement for anyone coming to the United States who anticipates remaining here longer than six months. This would include workers in every field and university students. It only makes sense that longer-term visitors be treated in the same manner as immigrants, and for the same reasons. It also makes sense that longer-term nonimmigrants be required to obtain medical insurance, whether through their school or employer.
There are multiple grounds for a finding of inadmissibility to the United States (see 8 USC §1182 for the full list). Health-related grounds are the first listed. Healthcare costs might raise public charge concerns. Mental issues raise the risk of criminality and other dangers to the community. Then there are communicable diseases of public health significance. It’s a short list—active TB, Gonorrhea, infectious Hansen’s Disease (Leprosy), and infectious syphilis.
In 2010, President Obama’s HHS removed HIV from this list for political reasons. The HIV prevalence rate in the US is around 0.4%. Long-term nonimmigrants to America come from several countries where HIV’s prevalence is much higher. HIV needs to be added back to the list of communicable diseases of public health significance.
Likewise, immigrants are required to provide a police clearance certificate as part of their immigration application. Long-term nonimmigrants should meet that requirement as well.
We’ve seen the riots over the past couple of years that include foreign students and other aliens. Secretary Rubio’s pause in issuing student visas to more fully vet applicants is a welcome improvement. I suggest that it is time that the Department of State print a brochure to be given to all successful temporary visa applicants, and to all those who cross the border under a visa waiver or a Mexican BCC. A signed acknowledgement of the receipt and understanding of the brochure should be incorporated into the record of the visa issuance or border admission, so there is no doubt.
The brochure should clearly outline America’s expectations of nonimmigrants, their rights and responsibilities as visitors to our country, and the penalties for violating legal restrictions on their behavior while in the United States. It should include the nonimmigrant’s acknowledgement that such violations may result in visa cancellation and immediate removal from the country.
Let’s discuss Temporary Protected Status for a second. TPS is granted when the Attorney General designates a foreign state as having extraordinary and temporary conditions that prevent its citizens from returning home safely. Such conditions do not support the granting of asylum or refugee status. They are allowed to stay in the US pending their eventual return home. TPS is currently granted to nationals of
- Afghanistan, due to violence and insurgency, scheduled to end 7/12/2025, entry currently restricted under the While House Proclamation dated 6/4/2025
- Cameroon, insurgency, 6/7/2025
- El Salvador, earthquake, 9/9/2026
- Ethiopia, violence and humanitarian crisis, 12/12/2025
- Haiti, earthquake, 8/3/2025, restricted
- Honduras, hurricane, 7/5/2025
- Lebanon, war, 5/27/2026
- Myanmar (Burma), coup, 11/25/2025, restricted
- Nepal, earthquake, 6/24/2025
- Nicaragua, hurricane, 7/5/2025
- Somalia, war, 3/17/2026, restricted
- South Sudan, war, 11/3/2025
- Sudan, conflict, 10/19/2026, restricted
- Syria, war, 9/30/2025
- Ukraine, war, 10/19/2026
- Venezuela has two separate TPS designations, socioeconomic and political crisis, 9/10/20205 and 10/2/2026, partially restricted
- Yemen, civil war, 3/3/2026, restricted.
At this time, the Attorney General has determined that these people temporarily have no home abroad to which they can return. It seems only sensible that no nonimmigrant visas, with the exception of diplomatic-type visas, should be issued, nor admission granted, to any nationals of these countries. If their stay cannot be determined to be truly temporary, they should not be admitted as nonimmigrants.
On June 4 this year, President Trump issued a White House proclamation restricting entry into the United States of aliens from countries that are home to anti-American foreign terrorism or which are the source of other national security and public safety threats to the United States. The identified countries need to improve their information-sharing and identity-management procedures before they are considered adequate to meet our visa issuance and entry-granting requirements.
Besides the countries in the list above, nationals from Chad, the Republic of the Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Iran, and Libya are fully restricted. Nationals from Burundi, Cuba, Laos, Sierra Leone, Togo, and Turkmenistan are partially restricted, mostly due to historically high overstay statistics. Before Biden’s presidency, two-thirds of the illegals in the US resulted from aliens overstaying their visa admissions. Trump’s order is excellent work, a promise kept, and We the People are pleased.
Asylum applicants present another sort of issue—that of fraud. All who obtain a nonimmigrant visa and/or admission to the US have declared that they have a home abroad to which they intend to return. Crying asylum and applying for refugee status means that the declaration was false. They obtained their visa or their entry, or both, by fraud. Any application for asylum status from someone issued a nonimmigrant visa and/or granted entry should be denied for being facially untrue. Send them back home, or let them go to any other country and present themselves for processing as a refugee. Boat people from Cuba and Haiti, who haven’t landed in an intermediate country of first asylum, are the clear exceptions.
Let’s tighten up visa issuance guidelines. No one is entitled to a nonimmigrant visa, except for diplomatic corps members. For countries not included on the above lists, especially from which terrorists have come to our shores or attacked our citizens abroad, e.g. Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, and Iraq, hard scrutiny is needed. Any hint of doubt about an applicant’s identity, intent while in the US, or motivation to return home, regardless of their nationality, should result in a denial of the application—either at the Embassy or at the border. It will lessen potential harm to our nation in the future.
Anony Mee is the nom de blog of a retired public servant who X-tweets at oh_yeahMee.
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