Country makes call to cancel all visas for Americans

With Doland Trump expanding the travel ban inspired by his first term in the White House to 20 more countries, as well as the Palestinian Authority, on Dec. 16, a total of 39 countries from different corners of the world now face either a total ban or restrictions on entering the United States.

Mali, South Sudan, Niger, Burkina Faso, Syria, and the Palestinian Authority have been added to the list of nations whose citizens cannot enter the U.S. at all, first introduced in June.

Angola, Antigua and Barbuda, Benin, Dominica, Gabon, Gambia, Ivory Coast, Malawi, Mauritania, Nigeria, Senegal, Tanzania, Tonga, Zambia, and Zimbabwe were meanwhile added to a list of countries facing a block on student and business visas; the list that Trump put in place in June 2025 previously included Burundi, Cuba, Laos, Sierra Leone, Togo, Turkmenistan, and Venezuela.

"Completely and permanently prohibiting the issuance of visas to all U.S. citizens"

Immediately after their nations were added to the ban, multiple diplomats and heads of state responded with condemnation. Antiguan Prime Minister Gaston Browne issued a statement saying that the Caribbean country's government was "deeply disappointed" given that the justification accusing it of loose rules for granting citizenship by investment "does not reflect the present reality of our laws."

Two weeks after the expansion of the ban, the West African nation of Niger has taken the most drastic step of permanently banning any granting of new visas to U.S. visas in a reciprocal measure until the situation changes.

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"Niger is completely and permanently prohibiting the issuance of visas to all U.S. citizens and indefinitely banning entry to its territory for nationals of the United States," a governmental representative said to the Associated Press.

A landlocked country bordered by Algeria, Libya, Chad, Nigeria, Benin, Mali and Burkina Faso, Niger is a Muslim-majority nation with a population of just over 25 million people. In the document announcing the travel ban, the White House said the country has a visa overstay rate of 13.41% for business visas and 16.46% for student ones as well as "terrorists and their supporters [that] are active in planning kidnappings."

Another African country pulled all visas for Americans earlier this year

While a history of war and political instability and coups d'états means that travel into Niger from Western countries remains very low (the State Department has kept it at the "do not travel" advisory level for years), the latest move from its government is a major escalation in relations.

A similar move was made by the government of Chad when the first version of the travel ban was introduced. In response to being included, the central African nation reciprocated by saying it will ban all new visas for U.S. citizens while also stop any still being processed.

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"I have instructed the government to act in accordance with the principles of reciprocity and to suspend the granting of visas to citizens of the United States of America," Chad's President Mahamat Idriss Deby wrote in a Facebook post announcing the decision on June 5.

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