In a White House Proclamation issued yesterday, June 4th, 2025, President Trump announced that certain nationals of a number of designated countries will be prevented from entering the United States starting at 12:01 a.m. Eastern Daylight Time on Monday, June 9, 2025.
The Proclamation “fully restricts and limits” the entry into the United States of nationals of 12 countries that have apparently been found to be deficient in their screening and vetting procedures and thus determined to pose “a very high risk” to the United States. The 12 countries are Afghanistan, Burma, Chad, Republic of Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Haiti, Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, and Yemen.
The full restriction and limitation on the entry into the United States of nationals of these countries should be interpreted to mean that citizens of these countries will be denied admission as immigrants or nonimmigrants to the United States in any status or for any purpose unless they are considered exempt from the prohibition on admission. The Proclamation includes “exceptions for lawful permanent residents, existing visa holders, certain visa categories, and individuals whose entry serves U.S. national interests”, as described below. A citizen of one of these countries who holds a green card, or a previously issued nonimmigrant or immigrant visa should therefore still be able to be readmitted to the United States.
The Proclamation also “partially restricts and limits” the entry to the United States of citizens of 7 countries that are deemed to pose “a high level of risk to the United States”, according to the accompanying “Fact Sheet” published by the White House. The 7 seven countries are Burundi, Cuba, Laos, Sierra Leone, Togo, Turkmenistan, and Venezuela.
The “partial” restriction and limitation on entry consists of a prohibition only on admissions as immigrants, and as nonimmigrants in B-1, B-2, B-1/B-2, F, M, and J status. Admissions in other nonimmigrant statuses such as H-1B, L-1, and O-1 should be permitted. Again, the exemption for permanent residents and holders of previously issued visas (even if in one of the prohibited categories enumerated above) will apply.
The prohibition on entry applies only to persons who are (i) outside the United States on the applicable effective date of this proclamation on Monday, June 9, 2025; and (ii) do not have a valid visa on this effective date.
The Proclamation specifically exempts the following categories of persons from the full or partial restrictions and limitations on entry:
(i) any lawful permanent resident of the United States;
(ii) any dual national of a designated country when the individual is traveling on a passport issued by a country not so designated;
(iii) any foreign national traveling with a valid nonimmigrant visa in the following classifications: A-1, A-2, C-2, C-3, G-1, G-2, G-3, G-4, NATO-1, NATO‑2, NATO-3, NATO-4, NATO-5, or NATO-6;
(iv) any athlete or member of an athletic team, including coaches, persons performing a necessary support role, and immediate relatives, traveling for the World Cup, Olympics, or other major sporting event as determined by the Secretary of State;
(v) immediate family immigrant visas (IR-1/CR-1, IR-2/CR-2, IR-5) with clear and convincing evidence of identity and family relationship (e.g., DNA);
(vi) adoptions (IR-3, IR-4, IH-3, IH-4);
(vii) holders of Afghan Special Immigrant Visas;
(viii) holders of Special Immigrant Visas for United States Government employees; and
(ix) holders of immigrant visas for ethnic and religious minorities facing persecution in Iran.
The Proclamation also allows exceptions to the suspension of and limitation on entry for certain individuals for whom the Attorney General finds, in her discretion, that the travel by the individual would “advance a critical United States national interest involving the Department of Justice.” In addition, the Proclamation allows exceptions on a “case-by-case” basis for individuals whose travel would “serve a United States national interest”, as determined by the Secretary of State, in his discretion.
The Proclamation codifies the Travel Ban that has been anticipated since President Trump took office in January and was promised by his Executive Order 14161 of January 20, 2025 (Protecting the United States from Foreign Terrorists and Other National Security and Public Safety Threats). Although by no means welcome, its provisions seem to have been carefully crafted to exempt permanent residents, dual citizens, persons who already hold valid visas in the prohibited B, F, M, and J nonimmigrant categories, and, as far as the citizens of the 7 countries are concerned, persons seeking admission in other nonimmigrant categories whose visas were issued after June 9, 2025. United States Customs and Border Protection officers will presumably be familiar with these provisions and the chaos that occurred at United States ports of entry when the first Travel Ban became effective in January 2017 will hopefully not be repeated.
The new Travel Ban will undoubtedly undergo court challenges in the coming weeks and may be enjoined and/or modified, and certain countries may be removed, with new ones being added. We will monitor all developments related to this closely and will issue further Alerts as these occur.
