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August 11, 2026
GWP IMMIGRATION LAW
The 2026 Travel Ban: 39 Countries, No Automatic Exception for Spouses.
A country-by-country breakdown of the current U.S. travel ban and exactly who it restricts.
The 2026 travel ban, set out in Presidential Proclamation 10998, fully or partially suspends visas for nationals of 39 countries and Palestinian Authority travel document holders. Unlike the framework it replaced, this travel ban no longer carves out an automatic exception for spouses, children, or parents of U.S. citizens.
Updated August 11, 2026 · GWP Law · Las Vegas, NVTHE CONTEXT
Why This Matters Now
The current travel ban did not appear overnight. Presidential Proclamation 10949 first restricted entry from 19 countries starting June 9, 2025, and Proclamation 10998, signed December 16, 2025, replaced and expanded that travel ban into the 39-country list in effect since January 1, 2026.
Both orders rely on Section 212(f) of the Immigration and Nationality Act, codified at 8 U.S.C. § 1182(f), which lets the President suspend entry of any class of noncitizens found detrimental to U.S. interests.
The Supreme Court upheld this same broad authority in Trump v. Hawaii, ruling that the statute “exudes deference to the President in every clause.”
The Department of State points to deficient identity-verification cooperation, high visa-overstay rates, and consular fraud concerns as the stated basis for including each country. A country’s placement on the full list versus the partial list reflects how severe the government considers that deficiency to be, not a fixed or permanent designation.
A separate policy the State Department announced in July 2026 denies visas to people responsible for or complicit in cyberscams and sextortion schemes, without requiring a criminal conviction, and it can extend to their immediate family members.
THE FULL LIST
Who Is Restricted, and How Much
Proclamation 10998 sorts the 39 countries into three tiers, each with a different scope of suspension, as published by the Department of State.
Full Suspension — 19 Countries Plus Palestinian Authority Travel Documents
- Afghanistan
- Burma (Myanmar)
- Burkina Faso
- Chad
- Republic of the Congo
- Equatorial Guinea
- Eritrea
- Haiti
- Iran
- Laos
- Libya
- Mali
- Niger
- Sierra Leone
- Somalia
- South Sudan
- Sudan
- Syria
- Yemen
- Holders of Palestinian Authority-issued travel documents
All nonimmigrant and immigrant visa categories are suspended for these nationals, subject only to the narrow exceptions covered later in this article.
Partial Suspension — 19 Countries
- Angola
- Antigua and Barbuda
- Benin
- Burundi
- Côte d’Ivoire
- Cuba
- Dominica
- Gabon
- The Gambia
- Malawi
- Mauritania
- Nigeria
- Senegal
- Tanzania
- Togo
- Tonga
- Venezuela
- Zambia
- Zimbabwe
For these countries, the suspension covers B-1/B-2 visitor visas, F, M, and J student and exchange visas, and all immigrant visa categories. Other nonimmigrant categories, such as H-1B or L-1 work visas, fall outside this proclamation.
Some nationals on this list, including from Haiti and Venezuela, may separately hold Temporary Protected Status, which runs on its own legal framework and does not offset this suspension.
Turkmenistan: The One-Category Exception
Turkmenistan is the only country where the suspension reaches solely immigrant visas, leaving every nonimmigrant category unaffected.
That math — 19 fully suspended, 19 partially suspended, and Turkmenistan’s single-category rule — accounts for the 39 countries named in the proclamation; Palestinian Authority travel document holders are counted separately from that total.
FAMILY IMMIGRATION
What Happens to a Pending Family Petition
USCIS can still approve a Form I-130 petition for a relative from any of the 39 countries, since approval only confirms the qualifying family relationship.
The case then moves to the National Visa Center for document and fee collection, and finally to a consular interview, where the officer must apply the proclamation.
This is where the 2026 framework differs sharply from its predecessor: Proclamation 10949 carved out an exception for immediate relative categories — IR-1/CR-1 spousal visas, IR-2/CR-2 for children, and IR-5 for parents — and Proclamation 10998 eliminated that exception for nationals of the 19 fully suspended countries.
A consular officer can still schedule and conduct the interview, but must generally deny the visa unless a categorical exception or a discretionary national interest exception applies.
The officer does not have discretion to disregard the proclamation once it applies to a given applicant; the Foreign Affairs Manual instructs consular staff to apply it as written, which is why the exception has to be built into the case before the interview, not argued afterward.
Source: U.S. Department of State, Suspension of Visa Issuance to Foreign Nationals to Protect the Security of the United States.
A REAL CASE
A Venezuelan Spouse Whose I-130 Was Approved, Twice
A U.S. citizen came to me in the spring of 2026 with an I-130 already approved for his wife in Venezuela.
He assumed approval meant the immigrant visa would follow within months, the way it had for his brother’s case back in 2019.
I reviewed the file and confirmed Venezuela sits on the partial-suspension list, which covers all immigrant visa categories, including IR-1 spousal visas.
No categorical exception applied to her, so I prepared a national interest exception request built around his documented medical condition and the couple’s five years of continuous marriage.
The consular section scheduled the interview and considered the exception request at that stage, exactly as the proclamation allows; a decision was still pending as of this writing.
I told him plainly that a scheduled interview is not a guaranteed outcome, and that the timeline is not one either of us controls.
What to Do Now
THE PATH FORWARD
Exceptions, Waivers, and the Limits of the President’s Authority
Lawful permanent residents are generally exempt from Proclamation 10998’s geographic suspensions, and dual nationals can often apply using a passport from a country not subject to the order.
Diplomatic and official A and G visas remain exempt, as do Special Immigrant Visas for former U.S. government employees under 8 U.S.C. § 1101(a)(27)(D).
For applicants outside these categories, the only remaining path is a discretionary national interest exception, decided case by case by the Secretary of State, the Secretary of Homeland Security, or the Attorney General, with no separate form and no published processing timeline.
Approval is not the default outcome, and our office treats every such request as a genuinely uncertain one rather than a formality to be checked off.
Building that record follows the same evidentiary discipline as any other admissibility waiver our office prepares.
A Separate Legal Basis: The Ebola Entry Suspension
Independent of the travel ban proclamations, a CDC order suspends entry for anyone who has been in the Democratic Republic of Congo, Uganda, or South Sudan within the past 21 days, the maximum incubation period for Ebola.
That order rests on Section 361 of the Public Health Service Act, codified at 42 U.S.C. § 264, not on Section 212(f) — and it applies to lawful permanent residents even though the geographic travel ban generally does not.
U.S. citizens and nationals are not barred from entry but must land at one of a small number of designated airports, including Washington Dulles, for enhanced screening.
Airlines enforce all of this at the boarding gate: Customs and Border Protection’s Carrier Liaison Program issues bulletins telling carriers which passengers should not be allowed to board a U.S.-bound flight in the first place.
Legal challenges to how the proclamation is applied in a specific case remain possible, but Trump v. Hawaii’s broad deference standard makes them difficult to win. For most applicants, a well-documented national interest exception request is a faster path than litigation.
References
- Presidential Proclamation 10998, Restricting and Limiting the Entry of Foreign Nationals to Protect the Security of the United States (Dec. 16, 2025)
- 8 U.S.C. § 1182(f), Cornell Legal Information Institute
- Trump v. Hawaii, 585 U.S. ___ (2018), Supreme Court opinion
- U.S. Department of State, New Visa Restriction Policy to Deter and Dismantle Cyberscams and Sextortion (July 2026)
- U.S. Department of State, Suspension of Visa Issuance to Foreign Nationals to Protect the Security of the United States
- 8 U.S.C. § 1101(a)(27)(D), Cornell Legal Information Institute
- CDC, What Travelers Need to Know About Returning to the United States from DRC, Uganda, and South Sudan
- 42 U.S.C. § 264 (Public Health Service Act § 361), Cornell Legal Information Institute
- CBP, Carrier Liaison Program Bulletin — Restricting Entry
Confirm Where Your Case Stands Before You File or Travel
Which tier applies, whether an exception fits, and how to document a national interest exception request are fact-specific questions with real consequences.
Book a Consultation →This article is for informational purposes only and does not constitute legal advice. Consult a qualified immigration attorney before taking any action. · Last verified: August 11, 2026 · Reviewed by: Kathia Quirós, Immigration Attorney · GWP Immigration Law
