Tunisia

Tunisia became the latest country added to the US State Department's Visa Bond Pilot Programme in March 2026, requiring Tunisian nationals to post bonds of up to $15,000 per person to receive a US tourist visa. The timing is acutely significant: Tunisia qualified for the 2026 FIFA World Cup, meaning thousands of supporters hoping to travel to the United States for the tournament now face a near-insurmountable financial barrier. Critics have described the programme as a de facto ban on working-class fans from the African continent.

Tunisia is a North African republic of about 12 million people, bordered by Algeria and Libya, with a Mediterranean coastline and a predominantly Arab and Berber population. It has a relatively diversified economy compared to its neighbours, with tourism, phosphate exports, and light manufacturing as key sectors. Politically, Tunisia underwent a democratic transition after the 2011 revolution that sparked the Arab Spring, before President Kais Saied consolidated power through a 2021 self-coup, new constitution, and dissolution of Parliament, drawing international censure.

On the football pitch, Les Aigles de Carthage are one of Africa's most experienced World Cup sides, having qualified six times including the inaugural 1978 tournament. Their 2026 qualification extended that record. The addition of the visa bond requirement — coming 67 days before the tournament — has given Tunisia a dual presence in World Cup coverage: as a competing nation and as a symbol of the political friction between US immigration policy and the sport's global ambitions.