Kamal Ghorui
A report by The Cato Institute says US government committed $1 million fraud through 75 country ban as they took visa processing fees from nationals from these countries but will never process those.
The Cato Institute, a Washington-based think-tank, in its latest report, called the US government’s Green Card ban on 75 countries the largest fraud in the history of the US immigration system totaling up to $1 billion. In the report, immigration expert David J Bier claimed citing figures that the government took fees from immigrants and US sponsors for services that they won’t provide. It is a theft of processing fees and the total amount is astounding. The report said there are four policies behind the fraud:
- President Trump imposed a ban on all visas for citizens of 40 countries in Decembr 2025.
- USCIS issued a ban on immigration benefits to nationals of specific countries who are already in the US.
- The State Department’s freeze in all immigrant visa applications for 75 countries.
- No approval of pending Diversity visa lotteries
Basically, all kind of country-specific bans are behind the alleged fraud. Bier said that while the authorities said they are reviewing applications case-to-case, over 320,000 immgrant visa applicants are bloked, excluding those who are already in the US. The administration did not deny them, took fees to process their applications but won’t ever adjudicate these, Bier explained.
Fees stack up
Bier cited the example of how the fees stack up as a US citizen, who is sponsoring a petition for a family member, has to pay a $675 fee. The applicant has to pay $1440 to adjust status from temporary to permanent residence. Then there is the fee of $560 for employment authorization document and the total fee can add up to $2675. But each application has a different fee and hence the assumption that the ‘fraud’ reaches $1 billion is based on broad assumptions.
Latest update on 75-country ban
These cases have been put on hold which means the officers dealing with such cases have been asked not to make a final decision. Such cases will not move forward and USCIS has not indicated that there will be any refund of the fees.
