The Federal Register notice applies to B1 and B2 visas, which are issued for business and tourism travel.

“Consular officers may require covered nonimmigrant visa applicants to post a bond of up to $20,000 as a condition of visa issuance, as determined by the consular officers,” the notice said.

“The 2025 visa bond pilot, which provided a framework for the Department of State, the Department of Homeland Security, and the Department of the Treasury to assess the feasibility of administering a visa bond programme, has provided sufficient data to suggest that a visa bond programme is an effective tool for enforcing compliance among bonded visa holders.”

In the pilot programme, consular officers could require bonds of $5,000, $10,000 or up to $15,000. The final rule eliminates the $5,000 option and raises the maximum bond to $20,000.

The final rule goes into effect on August 3 when it is scheduled for publication in the Federal Register. In the list of 50 countries for whose citizens this programme applies, 30 are from Africa.

US officials say the policy is intended to reduce visa overstays. Immigration advocates argue it will deter legitimate travel to the United States.

Rights advocates say President Donald Trump’s aggressive immigration crackdown violates free speech and due process, while creating an unsafe environment for ethnic minorities and encouraging racial profiling. Trump has defended the measures as necessary to bolster national security.

While Trump says he wants to curb illegal immigration, his administration has made legal immigration more difficult, for example, by imposing new and expensive fees for applicants of certain visas and by enforcing social media vetting for applicants and immigrants already in the country.

The PPP and the PML-N — coalition partners in the Centre — have been engaged in a war of words since the PML-N emerged in the lead during the first phase of polls. The PPP has accused the PML-N of rigging in Mirpur and demanded re-polling.

The latest round of talks followed two earlier meetings — the first at a local hotel on Thursday night and the second before noon on Friday.

The PML-N delegation comprised Prime Minister’s Adviser Rana Sanaullah, Federal Minister for Kashmir Affairs Amir Muqam, and PML-N AJK chapter secretary general and MLA-elect Chaudhry Tariq Farooq.

Representing the PPP were former Senate chairman Nayyar Bokhari, former federal minister Qamar Zaman Kaira and AJK Prime Minister Faisal Mumtaz Rathore, who also serves as secretary general of the party’s AJK chapter.

PPP leader Nadeem Afzal Chan attended the Friday meeting but was absent from today’s session.

The meetings reviewed security arrangements ahead of the second phase of polling on Sunday. Both sides agreed that the Election Commission, as well as the divisional and district administrations, should leave no room for lapses in ensuring extraordinary security measures so that voters could exercise their franchise freely.

According to sources, the discussions also focused on the PPP’s allegations of rigging and its subsequent demand for repolling in certain constituencies.

The PPP was told that neither the government nor any institution had facilitated or backed rigging and that, if irregularities had occurred at any polling station, they were localised incidents rather than the result of any organised plan.

“It was not planned or pre-planned rigging but isolated acts at places where supporters of one candidate enjoyed numerical dominance over their opponents. Such incidents have unfortunately been part of the territory’s polling atmosphere and have also been witnessed in previous elections,” a source quoted the PML-N leaders as telling their counterparts.

The PML-N leadership maintained that, unlike the PPP, it had begun election preparations well in advance and had enforced greater organisational discipline through constituency-level planning.

The PPP, they claimed, had remained under the impression that the elections would be delayed by a year and that the 12 refugee constituencies would be abolished, which prevented it from focusing on electoral preparations in time.

The meeting also discussed ways to address the complaints through both political dialogue and legal channels, the source said.

According to the sources, the PPP had initially raised objections to the results in four constituencies: Charhoi, Sehnsa and Nakyal in Kotli district, and Barnala in Bhimber district. However, it later withdrew its allegations regarding Sehnsa and Barnala.

Saturday’s discussions centred on Charhoi, where PPP AJK president Chaudhry Yasin lost to the PML-N’s Raja Riasat, and Nakyal, where PPP candidate Javed Iqbal Budhanvi was defeated by the PML-N’s Raja Ayaz Ahmed.

The sources said the PML-N had presented a detailed analysis of the results, showing that while its candidates had secured more than 80 per cent of the votes at some polling stations, the PPP had also won more than 80pc of the votes at others.

“If any irregularities occurred, they occurred on both sides, and a mechanism has been discussed to address them, legally and politically,” said a PML-N leader.

The meeting tasked both regional secretary generals — Rathore and Farooq — with contacting the Election Commission to explore a legal resolution to the dispute.

Another meeting had been scheduled for Saturday afternoon, but it could not be held because Sanaullah and Muqam had to leave for Islamabad owing to urgent engagements.

Both parties traded barbs earlier this week after the conclusion of the first phase of elections in AJK, with the PPP chairman alleging rigging in the polls and Punjab Chief Minister Maryam Nawaz urging the PPP to accept defeat.

The PML-N grabbed nine out of the 13 constituencies of AJK’s Mirpur division in the elections.

In a televised statement, Punjab Chief Minister Maryam Nawaz hailed the “outstanding victory” of the PML-N in the first phase of the AJK elections, urging the PPP to accept defeat.

“The PPP should have accepted its defeat by affirming the spirit of democracy, but I felt aggrieved by the kind of words used by PPP leaders.”

“The state does not decide election results; only the people make this decision,” she said in response to PPP Chairman Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari’s allegations.

On Thursday, PPP Chairman Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari warned that a stolen election in AJK would start a “countdown” for the federal government.

“If you steal [the election] … write it down, take my guarantee, that a countdown will start for your federal government,” he warned. “If you steal my mandate, I will come for your throne.”