Visa Changes August 2026: US Visa Bond Made Permanent, Birth-Tourism Order, $103,265 H-1B Fee Proposed

August was almost entirely a United States month. Three separate federal actions landed inside four weeks, one of them resolving a question that had been hanging over applicants from more than fifty countries since the spring. Europe, by contrast, did nothing visible — but the absence of one particular announcement has quietly settled the ETIAS timetable for the rest of the year.

US: The Visa Bond Is Now Permanent

This is the month's most consequential change, and it went the opposite way to what many applicants expected.

The B1/B2 visa bond began as a twelve-month pilot on 20 August 2025, under a temporary final rule carrying a stated end date of 5 August 2026. Through June and July there was no word on whether it would be extended, expanded or allowed to expire, and applicants with interviews scheduled around that date were left guessing.

It did not expire. On 3 August 2026 — two days before the deadline — the State Department published a final rule amending 22 CFR part 41 that makes the Visa Bond Program permanent. There is no longer an end date to wait for.

Three details matter if you are budgeting for a trip:

The cheapest tier is gone. The pilot ran on $5,000, $10,000 and $15,000. The permanent programme runs on $10,000, $15,000 and $20,000. Anyone who had set aside $5,000 on the strength of last year's guidance is now $5,000 short at the very least.

The default moved up. Consular officers are directed to set $15,000 as standard. They drop to $10,000 only where the officer believes the applicant could not pay $15,000 while still funding the trip itself, and go to $20,000 where the applicant's circumstances — the rule specifically mentions the nature and extent of their contacts in the United States — suggest $15,000 would not be enough to secure a timely departure.

The ceiling is now indexed. From 1 October 2027, and every seven years after that, the $20,000 maximum adjusts automatically for inflation against the CPI-U, rounded up to the nearest $1,000.

The amounts are not arbitrary. The Department set them against the DHS Immigration Enforcement Lifecycle cost of removing someone who overstays, which it puts at approximately $18,042 per person. That is why the middle tier sits where it does.

Two operational points carried over into the permanent rule. Bonded travellers may only enter and leave by commercial air, through a US airport of entry or a CBP Preclearance location — land and sea crossings are not permitted, though you may visit a contiguous territory after your initial entry and be readmitted under the automatic revalidation provisions at 22 CFR 41.122(d). And the resulting visa is short: three months single entry, three months multiple entry, or up to twelve months multiple entry, depending on your country's reciprocity schedule.

Countries covered under the pilot stayed covered when the rule took effect. Additions to the list get at least 15 days notice; removals take effect immediately.

Our visa bond guide has been updated to the permanent rule.

US: Executive Order 14419 Targets Birth Tourism

Executive Order 14419, signed 6 August 2026 and published on 11 August, directs the State Department and DHS to act against what it calls birth tourism.

The order defines the term precisely, and the definition is broader than it first appears. It covers both the entry of a foreign national on a nonimmigrant visa for the purpose of giving birth in the United States, and any effort by any foreign national to facilitate such an entry. The second limb reaches agents, operators and intermediaries, not just travellers.

Section 2 delegates the President's authority under INA section 215(a) to both Secretaries, which is the legal machinery that lets them write implementing rules. Section 4 sets out what they may do: refuse entry or any visa or travel authorisation; revoke a visa and permanently bar entry for someone who enters or attempts to enter for this purpose; deny entry to or remove someone who previously engaged in it; and take action against organisations facilitating it. Section 5 preserves discretion to exempt individuals on humanitarian grounds or where entry is in the national interest.

What this does not do is change any published rule today. It is an instruction to two departments to update their guidance, and the practical consequences will arrive through consular practice and any rulemaking that follows. The realistic near-term effect is closer questioning of visitor applicants where an officer believes the purpose of travel is childbirth — and, given the order's second limb, a harder line on anyone arranging such travel.

Anyone travelling to the US while pregnant for genuine reasons — visiting family, business, tourism — should expect the purpose of the trip to be probed more carefully than before, and should be ready to evidence it. Pregnancy has never been a bar to a visitor visa and this order does not make it one.

US: DHS Proposes a $103,265 Fee on H-1B Cap Petitions

On 25 August 2026 DHS published a proposed rule that would impose a fee of $103,265, payable at filing, on all H-1B cap-subject petitions — including those claiming the advanced-degree exemption — on top of every fee already payable.

DHS describes it as a dedicated revenue mechanism to recover part of the federal cost of administering the immigration system, spanning work done by DHS, the Department of Justice, the State Department and the Department of Labor.

Read the status carefully: this is a proposed rule, not a final one. Nothing is payable today. Written comments must be submitted on or before 24 September 2026, and DHS must consider them before it can finalise anything. Proposals of this size attract heavy comment and frequently change between proposal and final rule, so treat the figure as a proposal rather than a settled cost.

If it were finalised as drafted, the effect on smaller employers sponsoring cap-subject workers would be substantial, and the impact would fall hardest on the nationalities that dominate the cap — Indian applicants above all.

EU: ETIAS Has Run Out of Runway for 2026

Nothing was announced about ETIAS in August. That is itself the news.

The official EU position remains that ETIAS is expected in the last quarter of 2026, that the exact start date will be communicated in advance, and that the system is not yet operational and is not collecting applications. Crucially, the EU has committed to announcing the exact date at least six months before the system enters into operation.

Put those two commitments side by side and the arithmetic settles the question. Six months from the end of August 2026 is the end of February 2027. Since no date had been named by the close of August, ETIAS cannot begin operating in 2026 — the earliest possible start on the EU's own notice commitment is now roughly March 2027, and only if an announcement lands imminently.

This is our reading of the published commitments rather than an EU statement, and the Commission has not conceded a slip. But if you are planning travel to Europe in late 2026 or early 2027, the practical guidance is unchanged and now firmer: no ETIAS authorisation is required yet, and you will get substantial notice before one is.

The Entry/Exit System is a separate matter and is already live. EES went into operation on 12 October 2025 and has been fully operational at every external border crossing point since 10 April 2026, with manual passport stamping ended and fingerprints and facial images checked systematically. That part of the border package is done; ETIAS is the piece still to come.

See our ETIAS guide for what the authorisation will involve when it does arrive.

Thailand: Still Waiting on the Gazette

No change. Thailand's Cabinet approved cutting the visa exemption from 60 to 30 days for most nationalities on 19 May 2026, with a 15-day exemption for a small group. The revision takes effect 15 days after publication in the Royal Gazette, and as of the end of August that publication has not happened.

Until it does, the 60-day visa exemption remains in force. If you are travelling to Thailand this autumn, check the position again shortly before you fly rather than relying on either the old or the new rule being settled.

What to Watch in September 2026

• Canada's proof-of-funds adjustment, 1 September. IRCC revises the study-permit cost-of-living requirement every 1 September in line with Statistics Canada's low-income cut-off. The current figure for a single applicant outside Quebec is CAD 22,895. Expect a higher number and budget accordingly.
• H-1B fee comments close 24 September. Employers and applicants who would be affected have until then to file comments on the $103,265 proposal.
• Thailand's Royal Gazette. The 30-day exemption starts 15 days after publication, whenever that comes.
• An ETIAS date announcement. Whenever it lands, it starts a six-month clock — so the announcement itself will tell you the launch date well in advance.
• Implementing guidance under EO 14419. The order tells State and DHS to update their rules and operational guidance; what they publish will determine how much changes in practice.