The State Department confirmed that U.S. visa applicants who were denied visas to the United States because of former President Donald Trump’s travel ban on 13 mostly Muslim-majority and African countries can now reapply.
On his first day in office, President Joe Biden overturned Trump’s so-called Muslim ban on Jan. 20, terming it “a stain on our national conscience” in his proclamation.
The reprieve was announced on Monday by the State Department spokesman Ned Price who explained that applicants who were refused visas prior to Jan. 20, 2020, must submit new applications and pay a new application fee.
Price added that those who were denied visas on or after Jan. 20, 2020 may seek reconsideration without re-submitting their applications and do not have to pay additional fees.
The spokesman also pointed out that U.S. law bars applicants selected in the diversity visa lottery prior to the current fiscal year from being issued visas if they have not already gotten them.
Immigrants from countries that are not normally awarded many visas are mostly accepted through the diversity lottery.
According to State Department data, since December 2017, after the U.S. Supreme Court upheld a revised version of the original travel ban, some 40,000 people have been barred from entering the United States under the ban.
Some countries were added and others dropped from the list during the Trump administration.
Myanmar, Eritrea, Iran, Kyrgyzstan, Libya, Nigeria, North Korea, Somalia, Sudan, Syria, Tanzania, Venezuela and Yemen were in the list at the end of Trump’s presidency.
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