Visa applicants from six Muslim-majority countries must have a close
U.S. family relationship or formal ties to a U.S. entity to be admitted
to the United States under guidance distributed by the U.S. State
Department on Wednesday.
The guidance defined a close familial relationship as being a parent,
spouse, child, adult son or daughter, son-in-law, daughter-in-law or
sibling, including step siblings and other step family relations,
according to a copy of a cable distributed to all U.S. diplomatic posts
and seen by Reuters.
The cable, first reported by the Associated Press, said close family
“does not include grandparents, grandchildren, aunts, uncles, nieces,
nephews, cousins, brothers-laws and sisters-in-law, fiancés, and any
other ‘extended’ family members.”
It also specified that any relationship with a U.S. entity “must be
formal, documented, and formed in the ordinary course, rather than for
the purpose of evading the E.O.,” a reference to U.S. President Donald
Trump’s March 6 executive order barring most U.S. travel by citizens of
the six nations for 90 days.
The cable provides advice to U.S. consular officers on how to
interpret Monday’s Supreme Court ruling that allowed parts of the
executive order, which had been blocked by the courts, to be implemented
while the highest U.S. court considers the matter.
The six nations whose citizens are covered by the executive order are Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria, and Yemen.
Asked about the guidance issued on Wednesday night, the State Department declined to comment on internal communications.
The cable’s language closely mirrored the Supreme Court’s order on
the travel ban, though it appeared to interpret it in a narrow manner,
notably in its definition of close family.
It was unclear on Wednesday evening whether the State Department’s
interpretation of the court’s order would spark further legal action by
opponents of the ban.
The guidance gave several examples of what might constitute a bona
fide relationship with a U.S. entity, and said broad categories would be
exempt from the travel ban, such as those eligible for student visas,
“as their bona fide relationship to a person or entity is inherent in
the visa classification.”
Similarly, those eligible for family or employment based immigrant
visa applications are exempt from the travel ban, the cable said.
The cable said “a worker who accepted an offer of employment from a
company in the United States or a lecturer invited to address an
audience in the United States would be exempt” from the travel ban, but
someone who simply made a hotel reservation would not count as someone
with a bona fide relationship.
Trump’s executive order also imposed a 120-day ban on entry to the
United States by refugees. Monday’s Supreme Court order, however, said
the ban did not cover those refugees “who can credibly claim a bona fide
relationship with a person or entity” in the United States.
The State Department guidance was unclear on what U.S. refugee
agencies regard as a key question: whether their own dealings with
refugees applying to come to the United States constituted a bona fide
relationship.
The cable said that consulates should continue to interview
applicants for so-called diversity visas, which are granted to
individuals from countries that typically do not send many immigrants to
the United States. In 2015, around 10,500 citizens from the six banned
countries were selected for the diversity visa lottery, according to
State Department figures.
The travel ban will likely bar such visas for citizens of the six
countries, the cable acknowledged, stating that “we anticipate that very
few DV applicants are likely to be exempt from the E.O.’s suspension of
entry or to qualify for a waiver.”