Countries on the US restricted list

The Wall Street Journal has just published an article suggesting that there are another seven countries that might be added to those already 'blacklisted' for ESTA purposes - Syria, North Korea, Somalia, Yemen, Libya, Iran (and Venezuela for political officials).

From the article: "The new restrictions would apply to travelers and immigrants from Belarus, Eritrea, Kyrgyzstan, Myanmar, Nigeria, Sudan and Tanzania. The countries wouldn’t necessarily face blanket bans on travel to the U.S., but could have restrictions placed on specific types of visas, such as business or visitor visas, administration officials said."

Whether this means that, as a non-American, if you've visited any of these new countries, an ESTA would not be issued and you'd have to apply for a B1/B2 visa remains to be seen.

The full article in the WSJ is here

I suspect it won't affect ESTA-eligible visitors. Tanzania is a popular tourist destination that annually attracts more than a million visitors. The new restrictions apparently would apply to travelers and immigrants from the seven countries.

The Wall Street Journal article also reported, "In the 2018 fiscal year, 24% of Eritreans on business or visitor visas overstayed their permits, along with 15% of Nigerians and 12% of people from Sudan. Those compared with a total overstay rate in the category of 1.9%."