USA
Visa applicants from six Muslim-majority countries must have a close family relationship to a U.S. individual or formal ties to a U.S. entity to be admitted to the United States under guidance distributed by the U.S. State Department on Wednesday.
The guidance defined a close familial relationship as being a parent, spouse, child, adult son or daughter, son-in-law, daughter-in-law or sibling, including step siblings and other step family relations, according to a copy of a cable distributed to all U.S. diplomatic posts and seen by Reuters.
The cable, first reported by the Associated Press, said close family “does not include grandparents, grandchildren, aunts, uncles, nieces, nephews, cousins, brothers-laws and sisters-in-law, fiancés, and any other ‘extended’ family members.”
It also specified that any relationship with a U.S. entity “must be formal, documented, and formed in the ordinary course, rather than for the purpose of evading the E.O.,” a reference to U.S. President Donald Trump’s March 6 executive order temporarily barring most U.S. travel by citizens of six nations.
The cable provides advice to U.S. consular officers on how to interpret Monday’s Supreme Court ruling that allowed parts of the executive order, which had been blocked by the courts, to be implemented while the highest U.S. court considers the matter.
Reuters
00:33
Libyan oil pipeline attacked, state oil firm confirms
Go to video
Eritrea, Djibouti, Ethiopia hosts top U.S. diplomat on East Africa tour
Go to video
Ex-Liberian warlord 'Jungle Jabbah' gets 30 years in U.S. prison
Go to video
DP World should rethink port deals in Somalia - foreign minister
Go to video
Sudan's al-Bashir fires foreign minister by presidential decree
Go to video
Sudan protests to UN over Egypt voting in disputed Halayeb triangle