The US has asked visa applicants, who were denied because of former President Donald Trump’s travel ban on 13 mostly Muslim-majority and African countries, to seek new decisions or submit new applications.
Recall that US President Joe Biden had on January 20, his first day in office, overturned Trump’s so-called Muslim ban.
State Department spokesman Ned Price on Monday said applicants who were refused visas before Jan. 20, 2020, must submit new applications and pay a new application fee.
Those who were denied on or after Jan. 20, 2020, may seek reconsideration without re-submitting their applications and do not have to pay additional fees, Price said in a Reuters report.
Applicants selected in the diversity visa lottery before the current fiscal year are barred by US law from being issued visas if they have not gotten them already, he said. The diversity lottery aims to accept immigrants from countries that are not normally awarded many visas.
During the Trump administration, some countries were added and others dropped from the Muslim ban list. At the end of Trump’s presidency, it comprised Myanmar, Eritrea, Iran, Kyrgyzstan, Libya, Nigeria, North Korea, Somalia, Sudan, Syria, Tanzania, Venezuela and Yemen.