US: Visa Applicants Denied Under Trump’s Travel Ban Can Reapply

The US Department of State has announced that the United States visa applicants whose requests were denied under former President Donald Trump's controversial ban on travellers from 13 mostly Muslim-majority and African nations can now resubmit new applications.

State Department spokesperson Ned Price made this announcement following a legal review on the travel ban on Tuesday.

Price said those whose immigrant visa applications received a final refusal on or after Jan. 20, 2020, due to Trump’s travel ban “may seek re-adjudication without resubmitting their application forms or paying any additional fees, provided the underlying visa petitions remain valid.”

AllNews had reported that the newly-elected President Joe Biden overturned Trump’s travel ban on his first day in office, calling it “a stain on our national conscience,” and gave the State Department 45 days to come up with a plan that would allow individuals from the affected countries to have their US visa applications reconsidered.

Those who were refused visas prior to Jan. 20, 2020, “may also be reconsidered, but these individuals must submit new applications and pay a new application fee,” according to Price. An applicant’s previous denial under Trump’s travel ban will not be held against them.

READ ALSO: Biden Revokes Trump’s Immigrant Visa Ban

However, Price said that those who were selected in the diversity visa lottery during the fiscal years of the Trump administration are still barred from being issued visas if they haven’t gotten them already, because “the deadlines for visa issuance in those fiscal years have expired.”

That means they are eligible for the diversity visa lottery again but have no redress for their denial under Trump’s travel ban. The diversity visa lottery aims to accept applicants from nations with historically low rates of immigration to the United States.

Recall that since December 2017, more than 41,000 people were denied entry into the United States due to Trump’s travel ban, according to figures released by the State Department last September.

There have been various versions of the ban, with countries added or dropped from the list. The countries included at the end of Trump’s presidency were Eritrea, Iran, Kyrgyzstan, Libya, Myanmar, Nigeria, North Korea, Somalia, Sudan, Syria, Tanzania, Venezuela and Yemen.

A number of lawsuits have challenged Trump’s travel ban, including one filed in Hawaii that the Supreme Court ultimately sided against in 2018.