The Amer­i­can Cham­ber of Com­merce of Trinidad and To­ba­go (Am­cham T&T) is ex­press­ing se­ri­ous con­cern over a new visa bond pol­i­cy be­ing im­ple­ment­ed by the Unit­ed States, which could re­quire cer­tain ap­pli­cants to post bonds of up to US$15,000 in or­der to en­ter the coun­try.

Yes­ter­day, the US De­part­ment of State an­nounced that Zam­bia and Malawi, both lo­cat­ed in south­ern Africa, will be the first coun­tries sub­ject­ed to the new mea­sure.

The ini­tia­tive tar­gets ap­pli­cants from se­lect­ed na­tions seek­ing B1/B2 vis­i­tor visas, re­quir­ing them to pay a re­fund­able bond of US$5,000, US$10,000, or US$15,000 at the time of their visa in­ter­view.