Trump, journey bans and World Cup visas – the state of play

The FIFA World Cup is now solely 5 months away and one of many main off-field storylines referring to the competitors stays the extremely stringent method adopted by President Donald Trump’s administration in the direction of entry for foreigners into the United States.

Since Trump returned to energy final January, the U.S. has imposed a string of journey bans on nationals from designated nations, together with 4 nations (Senegal, Ivory Coast, Iran and Haiti) which have certified for the 48-team competitors.

This week, alarm bells sounded as soon as extra at FIFA after the Trump administration introduced a pause on visa processing for immigrants from 75 nations, together with extremely distinguished World Cup nations equivalent to Brazil, Colombia and Egypt.

Here, The Athletic units out what has modified throughout Trump’s administration and the way this pertains to gamers, officers and followers looking for to compete in or attend the match, which begins on June 11 and ends on July 19. The World Cup might be performed throughout the United States, Canada and Mexico, with 75 per cent of video games throughout 11 U.S. host cities, with the remaining 25 per cent shared between Canada and Mexico.

What is the affect of the visa pause introduced this week by the U.S. State Department? 

On Wednesday, a report by Fox News revealed that the Trump administration would droop processing for immigrant visa functions from 75 nations. This was subsequently confirmed by a State Department spokesperson.

The pause instantly provoked widespread concern for visa candidates the world over, whose lives and plans could also be upended, however from a World Cup perspective, it additionally brought about consternation as a result of it included 21 nations whose groups have both already certified for the World Cup or are competing to make the competitors through the play-off video games, which occur in March.

FIFA has already opened ticket functions and, in its newest part, claimed to have had over 500 million ticket requests, together with requests from 211 of its member nations.

The already-qualified World Cup nations on the State Department listing are: Algeria, Brazil, Colombia, Egypt, Ghana, Haiti, Iran, Ivory Coast, Jordan, Morocco, Senegal, Tunisia, Uzbekistan, and Uruguay.

Vinicius Junior and Bruno Guimaraes might be hoping to see as many Brazil followers as attainable on the World Cup. (Wagner Meier / Getty Images)

Nations on the listing who stay in play-off rivalry are as follows: Albania, Bosnia & Herzegovina, Jamaica, Kosovo, North Macedonia, Iraq, and Democratic Republic of the Congo.

However, the viral claims of World Cup guests being impacted weren’t correct. That is as a result of the pause is said solely to processing immigrant visas — for many who want to reside completely within the United States. Fans looking for to go to the U.S. for the World Cup would as a substitute be making use of for non-immigrant visas, seemingly on vacationer or enterprise visas, and the coverage introduced this week doesn’t affect these functions.

How do Trump’s earlier journey bans affect those that want to attend the World Cup within the U.S.? 

Travel bans launched by the Trump administration at the moment threaten to stop nationals from 4 World Cup-qualified nations from attending the match within the U.S.

In December, the U.S. authorities imposed journey bans, which affected followers from African nations Senegal and Ivory Coast. Iranian and Haitian nationals have been already dealing with journey restrictions, which Trump signed off in June.

The December proclamation suspends entry into the U.S. for nationals of Ivory Coast and Senegal, each as immigrants and non-immigrants, together with within the customer class for enterprise and tourism — the latter of which might be required to attend the World Cup.

A reality sheet by the White House cited an Overstay Report, which mentioned nationals from Ivory Coast have an overstay price of 8.47 per cent when travelling on a B1/B2 (enterprise/customer visa), whereas Senegal had an overstay price of 4.30 per cent in the identical class. This is the category of visa required for vacationers. The reality sheet additionally claimed that Senegal has an overstay price of 13.07 per cent within the scholar and cultural alternate visa classes, whereas Ivory Coast has an overstay price of 19.09 per cent in these classes.

In June, Trump signed one other journey ban by which Haiti and Iran have been amongst 12 nations impacted, a step Trump described as important to “protect the national security and national interest of the United States and its people”.

The executive order, introduced on June 4, was titled: ‘Restricting the entry of foreign nationals to protect the United States from foreign terrorists and other national security and public safety threats’.

That doc mentioned that Haiti was focused as a result of a report by the Department of Homeland Security for Fiscal Year 2023 said that Haitians who entered the U.S. on a B-1 or B-2 visa (for enterprise or pleasure) had an overstay price of 31.38 per cent, whereas the overstay price for nonimmigrant college students and alternate guests was 25.05 per cent.

Haiti has been embroiled in political crises ever since its beforehand elected president Jovenel Moise was assassinated in 2021. The United Nations has mentioned that gangs management 90 per cent of the territory within the Haitian capital, Port-au-Prince.

The harmful situations in Haiti have meant the nationwide group performed its residence video games outdoors of the nation throughout its Concacaf qualification for the match, with World Cup qualification matches performed in Nicaragua.

Haiti have certified for the World Cup however followers might wrestle to see them. (Ezequiel Becerra / AFP through Getty Images)

Trump’s government order in June described Iran as a “state sponsor of terrorism”, alleging that the state “regularly fails to cooperate with the United States Government in identifying security risks”.

It means journey for Iranian nationals looking for to help the group within the World Cup could also be restricted.

While exemptions are made in all instances for World Cup athletes, groups and speedy family of gamers, far-reaching exemptions for supporters don’t exist.

There are some exemptions, equivalent to for nationals of designated nations touring on authorities or NATO enterprise, or lawful everlasting residents of the United States.

In Iran’s case, there are additionally exemptions for twin residents and people with a passport from a non-designated nation. There may also be entry granted to Iranians on immigrant visas owing to ethnic or spiritual persecution of their residence nation.

A U.S. State Department spokesperson beforehand instructed The Athletic: “We are implementing the president’s directive to secure U.S. borders and protect American communities and citizens.”

Following the World Cup attract December in Washington, D.C., the Haiti head coach, Sebastien Migne, mentioned the attendance of his aspect’s followers on the 2026 World Cup finals was depending on Trump.

When it was put to Migne that Trump is a peace prize winner (Trump gained the inaugural FIFA Peace Prize forward of the draw), the coach mentioned: “Yeah, maybe he will continue with that (spirit) and he will open the possibility for the fans to come here.”

Haiti and Iran’s three group stage fixtures all happen within the U.S., however Senegal and Ivory Coast every have two video games within the U.S. and one in Toronto, Canada, which can at the least allow extra followers to attend these video games.

What about these travelling from nations not topic to journey restrictions?

For many countries competing within the match, together with many in Europe, in addition to Japan, South Korea and Australia, entry needs to be extra simple as they’re a part of a visa waiver program — ESTA — to enter the U.S.

This system means residents of those nations can journey with out acquiring a visa, as long as their journey for tourism or enterprise doesn’t exceed 90 days.

However, even this course of might but face larger scrutiny. This is as a result of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and the Customs and Border Protection (CBP) filed a proposal, printed within the Federal Register in December, that proposed ESTA candidates ought to have to supply social media data from the previous 5 years of their software. It mentioned this may assist adjust to Trump’s government order from January 2025, entitled “Protecting the United States From Foreign Terrorists and Other National Security and Public Safety Threats”.

It additionally proposed that CBP add additional “high value data fields” to an ESTA software, together with phone numbers from the final 5 years, electronic mail addresses from the final 10 years, household quantity phone numbers used within the final 5 years, speedy members of the family names, member of the family locations of delivery, biometrics together with face, fingerprint, DNA, and iris, and enterprise emails and phone numbers used lately. The proposal has not but been applied and is at the moment open for public remark till February 9.

Countries who don’t qualify for the ESTA programme require short-term non-immigrant visas. This contains Mexico, Argentina, Brazil, Colombia and Uruguay, amongst many different Latin American nations, in addition to massive swathes of the Middle East and Africa.

One of the large areas of concern for FIFA’s authorities affairs group within the lead-up to the World Cup has been troublingly lengthy wait occasions for visa appointments at U.S. consulates all over the world. This had threatened to affect followers of countries who’ve already certified for the World Cup. For instance, in current occasions, there have been wait occasions exceeding six months in nations equivalent to Morocco, Colombia and Ecuador, all of that are competing within the World Cup.

The State Department has beforehand succeeded in decreasing extraordinarily lengthy wait occasions in Argentina and Brazil. The trigger was helped by $50million put aside “to reduce passport backlogs and reduce visa wait times” in a invoice signed into regulation by Joe Biden, who was president on the time, in March 2024.

Joe Biden talking final 12 months (Samuel Corum/Sipa/Bloomberg through Getty Images)

In November, the Trump administration took a step in the direction of facilitating world entry for followers when it introduced the creation of the FIFA PASS. The FIFA PASS is just not a visa in itself, however it does present a prioritized visa appointment system for many who have bought tickets to attend the match.

U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said: “The United States is offering prioritised appointments so FIFA World Cup fans can complete their visa interviews and show they qualify.”

He warned, “A ticket is not a visa and it doesn’t guarantee admission to the U.S.”, however mentioned those that apply with a ticket might get an interview inside “six to eight weeks”.

However, candidates will nonetheless be topic to the identical degree of stringent vetting, questioning and safety clearances as some other people looking for to enter the nation.

How does this all examine to statements beforehand made by FIFA and the administration? 

During Trump’s first presidency, a interval by which he beforehand imposed journey bans, FIFA President Gianni Infantino was requested in regards to the significance of overseas nationals with the ability to attend the World Cup. This was notably vital as a result of the U.S., Canada and Mexico have been, at the moment, nonetheless battling towards Morocco for the precise to host the 2026 competitors, which was finally awarded to the North American nations in 2018.

Infantino told reporters in 2017: “It’s obvious when it comes to FIFA competitions, any team, including the supporters and officials of that team, who qualify for a World Cup need to have access to the country, otherwise there is no World Cup.”

Additionally, as a part of the United States’ joint bid with Canada and Mexico to host the World Cup — dated May 2, 2018 — Trump wrote to Infantino and mentioned he was assured that “all eligible athletes, officials and fans from all countries around the world would be able to enter the United States without discrimination”.

Throughout 2025, throughout the first 12 months of Trump’s second presidency, Infantino repeatedly reiterated that “America will welcome the world”.

He mentioned: “Everyone who wants to come here to enjoy, to have fun, and to celebrate the game will be able to do that.”

Infantino additionally claimed that the 2 FIFA tournaments over the subsequent 12 months would generate virtually $50billion in financial output for the U.S. The query, nevertheless, is whether or not repeated information cycles a few extra stringent method to coming into the U.S. might dissuade world travellers from attending each the match this summer time and subsequent 12 months’s World Cup, leaving FIFA extra reliant on a home viewers and host cities vulnerable to falling wanting their financial affect, as vacationers are likelier to spend extra money.

Speaking in regards to the World Cup in May 2025, Vice President J.D. Vance mentioned throughout a gathering of the White House’s World Cup job pressure: “Of course, everyone is welcome to come and see this wonderful event. We want them to come, we want them to celebrate, we want them to watch the games.

“But when the time is up, we want them to go home; otherwise, they will have to talk to Secretary Noem,” he mentioned, referring to Kristi Noem, the Secretary of Homeland Security.

In December, the White House World Cup job pressure director, Andrew Giuliani, instructed The Athletic he couldn’t touch upon which nations could also be thought-about for future journey bans.

He mentioned: “He (Trump) is continually looking at everything he can do, not just to make this World Cup safe for American citizens, but for all those international visitors who are going to come here, while making it welcoming to all the fans that want to come here to enjoy the World Cup and have an absolute blast.”

He added: “Safety and security is the No 1 thing when it comes to this World Cup. Every visa decision is a national security decision. That’s key to highlight.”