The US visa-bond programme expanded to 50 countries on 2 April. Seven of the 48 qualified World Cup nations now face either a full ban or a $15,000 bond, a refined count of 14.6% of the field that replaces the earlier 18.75% figure the Council on Foreign Relations cited in early April . The expansion added Tunisia and debutants Cape Verde to the qualified-nations bond list.
A visa bond is a refundable deposit held against the risk a visitor overstays their permit; at $15,000 per person it is a deposit no supporter on an ordinary income can extend for a tournament ticket. Cape Verde is the smallest nation by population ever to reach a World Cup and only confirmed qualification on 31 March . For a Cape Verdean family of four, the bond translates to a $60,000 outlay before kickoff, before flights, accommodation, or match tickets are counted.
The State Department admitted on 7 April that it has produced no estimate of the programme's effect on World Cup attendance . That gap is why the refined 14.6% figure, rather than the earlier CFR estimate, is now the only public quantification of the access barrier. The pattern is the same one Senegal supporters already face under the blanket ban: a debutant nation that qualified on sporting merit and then discovered that its supporters could not afford to travel to the tournament on immigration terms set by the host government.
