New Year, New Travel Ban?

Today is the three-year anniversary of President Trump’s travel ban.

The original order has gone through some changes, but it still blocks visas for some citizens of seven countries including Iran, Libya, Somalia, Syria, Yemen, Venezuela and North Korea.

Since the start of the new year, there’s been an increasing amount of rumors and reporting about a likely expansion of the travel ban in 2020.

While the administration has not confirmed these rumors, the news suggests seven more countries will be added to the ban list.

The countries that are likely to be added are Belarus, Myanmar, Eritrea, Kyrgyzstan, Nigeria, Sudan and Tanzania.

A ban could prevent most citizens of those countries from traveling to the United States.

Of all these possible additions to the list, the country that would be most impacted is Nigeria. Each year thousands of permanent resident cards, immigrant visas and nonimmigrant visas are issued to Nigerian citizens.

If Nigeria is placed on the ban list, hundreds of thousands of Nigerian-Americans will be impacted. They may see a complete halt or at the very least an increase in scrutiny whenever they try to sponsor family members for immigration to the United States.

If you are a citizen of these countries that may soon be added to the travel ban and you have a pending immigration application, you should consult with your lawyer to find out if anything can be done to expedite your case before a ban can go into effect.

If you don’t have a lawyer, join me on Thursday at www.facebook.com/WhittLaw where I’ll be presenting a live Q&A about immigration case delays and how a lawyer can help.