On January 1, 2026, Turkmenistan was quietly added – alongside 5 African international locations and Bhutan – to the U.S. State Division’s visa bond pilot program, beneath which in any other case eligible candidates for enterprise or tourism visas should submit a bond of $5,000, $10,000, or $15,000 to be able to enter the US.
This comes weeks after Turkmenistan was the one nation to see the partial ban on visas for its residents eliminated, even because the Trump administration labored to limit the entry of extra international nationals to the US.
The common month-to-month wage in Turkmenistan is estimated to be round 2,750 manat, or round $141, per 30 days, based on the Progres Basis (utilizing the black market trade charge, slightly than the official charge).
As soon as once more, entry to the US is being pushed past the attain of most Turkmen.
In August 2025, the U.S. State Division launched a 12-month visa bond pilot program. Underneath this system, international vacationers from choose international locations on B-1 or B-2 visas – that’s for enterprise or pleasure, respectively – are topic to a compulsory, reimbursable bond as a situation of receiving a visa.
This system, based on a public discover posted to the Federal Register, targets international locations with excessive visa overstay charges, these the place screening and vetting data is deemed poor, or international locations “providing Citizenship by Funding” schemes. (Mockingly, U.S. President Donald Trump in September 2025 introduced a “Gold Card” immigrant visa for people making “presents” of $1 million to the U.S. Division of Commerce).
Turkmenistan was among the many batch of nations topic to partial bans on the issuance of nonimmigrant – enterprise, tourism, pupil, and trade – visas in June 2025. The official references to Turkmenistan talked about solely the nation’s excessive overstay charge.
As I reported on the time, whereas Turkmenistan’s charges – as a share – had been, certainly, comparatively excessive in the newest knowledge from 2023, they had been in particular person phrases exceedingly low.
Turkmenistan is a notoriously remoted nation. Not many Turkmen handle to acquire visas to the US within the first place.
Based on the identical 2023 Entry/Exit Overstay Report from the U.S. Division of Homeland Safety, the variety of Turkmen enterprise or vacationer (B-1/B-2) visa holders anticipated to depart was 925. Of that quantity, 142 overstayed their visa – 136 who had been suspected to stay within the nation and 6 who departed, however after their visa had expired. This interprets to a complete overstay charge of 15.35 % (14.7 % if those that had departed the U.S. are omitted). The variety of nonimmigrant pupil and trade customer (F, M, J) visa holders was 207, with 45 overstays – 4 of that are believed to have departed the nation – for a complete overstay charge of 21.74 % (19.81 %, leaving out the late departures).
And the U.S. authorities’s willpower rested solely on these figures, with out context. An examination of previous overstay charges revealed an enormous spike after 2020, arguably a results of the Turkmen authorities’s personal insurance policies, which left residents whose passports had expired overseas with no method to renew their paperwork.
As soon as once more, the 2023 figures are getting used to justify an exclusionary coverage divorced from a real risk evaluation.
The excellent news, if there may be any, is that visa bond program doesn’t apply to pupil visas. However that’s little consolation for some other Turkmen wishing to go to the US.
