On December 16, 2025, President Trump issued a Proclamation, Restricting and Limiting the Entry of Foreign Nationals to Protect the Security of the United States (“expanded ban”), which expands and modifies the June 4 Proclamation Restricting the Entry of Foreign Nationals to Protect the United States from Foreign Terrorists and Other National Security and Public Safety Threats (“initial ban”).
The initial ban ordered suspension of entry for nonimmigrant visa holders and immigrant visa holders from Afghanistan, Chad, Republic of the Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Haiti, Iran, Libya, Myanmar (Burma), Somalia, Sudan, and Yemen. The expanded ban continues the ban for the initial 12 countries and adds 5 more: Burkina Faso, Mali, Niger, South Sudan, and Syria. The expanded ban also adds anyone traveling on documents issued by the Palestinian Authority, and moves Laos and Sierra Leone from the partial ban category to the full ban category. Nationals from these areas are fully restricted from entry, with certain exceptions.
The initial ban ordered a partial suspension of entry for nationals from Burundi, Cuba, Laos, Sierra Leone, Togo, Turkmenistan, and Venezuela. The expanded ban moves Laos and Sierra Leone to the full ban category, and adds 15 additional nations to the partial ban list: Angola, Antigua and Barbuda, Benin, Cote d’Ivoire, Dominica, Gabon, The Gambia, Malawi, Mauritania, Nigeria, Senegal, Tanzania, Tonga, Zambia, and Zimbabwe. Turkmenistan's ban is modified to allow nonimmigrant visas but not immigrant visas. The partial restrictions are otherwise defined as a ban on entry for immigrant visa holders and nonimmigrant visa holders on B, F, M, and J visas (with certain exceptions). Consular officers are also directed to limit the validity of other nonimmigrant visas—presumably to the minimum allowed under the reciprocity schedule or to single-entries.
Although the Proclamation uses the term “national,” it says that dual nationals traveling on a passport or applying for a visa from a non-banned country are exempt from the ban. As with prior bans, a national interest exemption is available on a case-by-case basis. Notably, exemptions for immediate relatives were removed.
The expanded ban is prospective: it only applies to newly-banned foreign nationals of the designated countries who (i) are outside the United States on the applicable effective date of the proclamation, and (ii) do not have a valid visa on the applicable effective date of the proclamation. Valid visas already issued will not be revoked under the ban.
As a visa issuance ban, the proclamation should not affect applications for admission with valid unexpired visas. As of this writing USCIS has not commented whether it will expand its December 8 adjudication pause to these additional nationals.
The ban takes effect on 12:01AM Eastern time on January 1, 2026 and will be reviewed in 180 days, and every 180 days thereafter.
Resources:
JSPBC’s post on the initial ban: https://www.jspvisa.com/blog/2025/6/5/presidential-proclamation-banning-travel-for-nationals-from-certain-countries
White House Fact Sheet: https://www.whitehouse.gov/fact-sheets/2025/12/fact-sheet-president-donald-j-trump-further-restricts-and-limits-the-entry-of-foreign-nationals-to-protect-the-security-of-the-united-states/
Claire Pratt © Jewell Stewart Pratt Beckerson & Carr PC 2025