The rules in the UK on allowing visitors from the 12 countries now banned by Donald Trump from entering the US

Daily Mail​

a day ago

Donald Trump has dramatically banned the citizens of 12 countries from entering the US in a bid to 'protect Americans from dangerous foreign actors'.
Announcing the move from the Oval Office, the president said 'we don't want 'em' before referencing a recent attack in Boulder, Colorado where 12 people were injured when an Egyptian man attacked a group gathering in support of Israeli hostages.
The ban, which is set to begin on June 9, will apply to citizens of Afghanistan, Myanmar, Chad, Congo-Brazzaville, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Haiti, Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan and Yemen.
Those from another seven countries - Burundi, Cuba, Laos, Sierra Leone, Togo, Turkmenistan and Venezuela - will be hit by a partial ban.
Citizens from all these nations are still allowed to travel to the UK, so what hoops do they have to jump through to come here?
In most cases, anyone wishing to travel to Britain from all 19 countries would need to apply for a visa. These are categorised by the purpose they are intended for, including work, study, leisure visits, or joining family, with different rules for each.
Most long-term visas require applicants to provide a copy of their passport and documents proving their work status and access to finances.
Home Office workers will check each applicant's eligibility for the visa and whether their application is accurate and complies with official requirements. Background checks may also be carried out, although the exact nature of these is unclear.
Visa applications are generally refused if they are found to be incomplete, inaccurate, or the applicant has a history of immigration violations. There is also the option to bar people from the UK - such as hate preachers - if their presence is deemed 'not conducive to the public good'.
Specific criminal record checks are only required to obtain work visas for specific jobs, including teaching and medical roles.
Some additional requirements, such as tests for diseases like Tuberculosis for citizens from countries like Equatorial Guinea.
It costs £524 to apply for a student visa from outside the UK, in addition to a £776 immigration health surcharge.
Some 192,000 visas were granted to main applicants in all work categories in the year ending March 2025, 39 per cent down on the previous 12 months. However, that was still 40 per cent more than in 2019.
Most UK visa applicants have to present their visa documents at a UK visa application centre in their home country.
However, Afghans are required to go to a neighbouring country as there are no functioning centres in Taliban-governed Afghanistan.
Aside from applying through a mainstream visa route, there are also two special schemes open to Afghans who have worked with the UK Government or those seen as particularly vulnerable, such as LGBT people.
Afghanistan is the second most common country of origin for UK asylum claimants, many of whom arrive in small boats.
They are only able to apply for asylum after arriving on UK soil, after which they will be screened by an immigration officer and told to wait until their application is either accepted or refused.
It is during this waiting period that asylum seekers are often put up in taxpayer-funded hotels.
One notable absence from Mr Trump's ban list was Egypt - where the Boulder terror suspect came from.
Mohamed Soliman was residing in the US illegally with his wife and five children when he allegedly firebombed pro-Israel demonstrators, injuring 12 of them.
Mr Trump has raised the possibility that Egypt could be added onto his no-fly list.
'We don't want 'em,' he said bluntly in a video released shortly after the ban was announced.
'Very simply, we cannot have open migration from any country where we cannot safely and reliably vet and screen.'
Mr Trump said he hopes their efforts will 'confirm the adequacy of its current screening and vetting capabilities.'
He said the tragedy in Boulder 'underscored the extreme dangers posed to our country by the entry of foreign nationals who are not properly vetted.
'We've seen one terror attack after another from foreign visa overstayers... thanks to Biden's open door policies today there are millions and millions of these illegals who should not be in our country.'
Several of the nations facing bans have been targeted because their screening and vetting capabilities are not up to the president's standards, putting Egypt on high alert.
Afghanistan, Eritrea, Libya, Sudan and Yemen were all placed on the banned list in part due to limited screening and vetting measures, Trump noted.
White House Deputy Press Secretary Abigail Jackson wrote on X: 'President Trump is fulfilling his promise to protect Americans from dangerous foreign actors that want to come to our country and cause us harm.
'These commonsense restrictions are country-specific and include places that lack proper vetting, exhibit high visa overstay rates, or fail to share identity and threat information.
'President Trump will ALWAYS act in the best of interest of the American people and their safety.'