Pascal Arogorn Ibe
US 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 seek new decisions or submit new applications, the US Department of State announced Monday evening .
According to ABC News , 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 .
Following a legal review , State Department spokesperson Ned Price said Monday that 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. ”
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 .
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 .
Since December 2017, more than 41, 000 people were denied entry into the United States due 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.
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