Is Kyrgyzstan Next to Face a US Travel Ban?

In early June, U.S. President Donald Trump resurrected a controversial policy from his first administration: the travel ban.

The first tranche of countries hit with full or partial travel bans included Turkmenistan, from which immigrants and nonimmigrants on a variety of business, tourism, and student visas have been barred from entry into the United States. The relevant proclamation stated that within 90 days – and every 180 days thereafter – the order would be reviewed, and possibly adjusted.

Technically, that first review should happen by September 2. There are few expectations, however, that the list of countries whose citizens are barred entry from the U.S. will shrink at that juncture.

Just over a week after the announcement of the initial Trump 2.0 travel bans, The Washington Post reported on an internal State Department memo which outlined a list of 36 additional countries – including Kyrgyzstan – that may be targeted with visa bans or other restrictions. The memo, which the Post reported had been signed by U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio, was sent to U.S. diplomats in the potentially targeted countries, noting that the foreign governments were to be given 60 days to “meet new benchmarks and requirements.”

That deadline hits in mid-August.

“It was not immediately clear when the proposed travel restrictions would be enforced if the demands were not met,” the Post reported.

Before 60 days had passed, however, Kyrgyzstan received bad news.

The U.S. Embassy in Bishkek announced via Facebook post that the State Department – citing the executive order that mandated the first tranche of travel bans – had reduced nonimmigrant visa validity for “nationals of certain countries.” The image attached to the post stated: “This week, in furtherance of the Executive Order ‘Protecting the United States from Foreign Terrorist and Other National Security and Public Safety Threats,’ the Department reduced nonimmigrant visa validity for nationals of the Kyrgyz Republic.”

According to reporting by RFE/RL’s Kyrgyz Service, Radio Azattyk, Bishkek was not given any prior notice about the change and was seeking a meeting with U.S. Ambassador to Kyrgyzstan Leslie Viguerie to discuss the issue.

Since July 2012, U.S. citizens have been allowed visa-free access to Kyrgyzstan for up to 60 days. Kyrgyz citizens, meanwhile, must obtain a visa in order to visit the United States. According to State Department 2024 data, the refusal rate for business and tourism visas for citizens of Kyrgyzstan was 39.14 percent.

Kadyr Toktogulov, a former Kygyz ambassador to the United States, noted in a Facebook post that, “Unfortunately, citizens of Kyrgyzstan will no longer be able to obtain multiple [entry] 10-year visas. Under the new rules, nonimmigrant (tourist/business) visas will be issued for 3 months and for only 1 entry.”

For comparison, as of mid-July 2025, Kazakh citizens seeking nonimmigrant business or tourist visas are still eligible for multiple entry visas with a validity of 10 years. Uzbek and Tajik citizens can obtain multiple entry visas, but with a validity period of only a year.

Curiously, and arguably a reflection of its own arduous visa process for Americans, Turkmen citizens – until the June proclamation curtailed visa issuances almost entirely – were eligible for single entry business and tourist visas with a validity of three months and a hefty fee of $330.

The ground may continue to shift, with Kyrgyzstan certainly next on the chopping block in Central Asia should the Trump administration decide to expand its travel ban list.

Back in 2020, Kyrgyzstan was listed in the fourth tranche of travel bans issued in the first Trump administration. At the time, Trump stated in Proclamation 9983 that “Kyrgyzstan does not comply with the established identity-management and information-sharing criteria assessed by the performance metrics.” The proclamation went on to state that “Kyrgyzstan does not issue electronic passports or adequately share several types of information, including public-safety and terrorism-related information, that are necessary for the protection of the national security and public safety of the United States.” In conclusion, the proclamation stated that “Kyrgyzstan… presents an elevated risk, relative to other countries in the world, of terrorist travel to the United States, though it has been responsive to United States diplomatic engagement on the need to make improvements.”

Entry of Kyrgyz nationals, except “special Immigrants whose eligibility is based on having provided assistance to the United States Government,” was suspended as of February 21, 2020 until January 20, 2021 when President Joe Biden ordered the rescission of Proclamation 9983, among other executive actions taken by the first Trump administration, on his first day in office.

While some of the circumstances have changed in the last five years – for example, Kyrgyzstan announced it would soon begin issuing biometric passports in December 2020 – it’s not clear if information sharing between the U.S. and Kyrgyzstan has developed in any meaningful fashion. The recent slashing of terms for U.S. visas available to Kyrgyz citizens suggests not.

Not all of the countries subject to travel bans are in the top ranks of visa overstayers. Afghanistan, for example, is subject to a total travel ban even though its business and tourist visa overstay rate was 9.7 percent in 2023 – just 119 people. Iran is also subject to a total ban, despite having a visa overstay rate below 5 percent.

But the metric the Trump administration appears to be leaning on most heavily when it comes to Central Asia is, indeed, the visa overstay rate. As mentioned in my previous reporting, this figure is the only data point stated in justifying the addition of Turkmenistan to the ban list. Turkmenistan’s visa overstay rate in 2023 – the most recent year for which there is public data and the year cited in the June proclamation – was 15.35 percent. But that figure represents just 142 people.

Kyrgyzstan in 2023 had a total visa overstay rate of 11.06 percent for business and tourist visas, amounting to 513 people. It’s the next highest rate in the Central Asian region and sat in the top 30 countries globally in terms of overstay rates that year.

If the Trump administration is looking to expand its list, and there’s no reason to believe it won’t, Kyrgyzstan could again make the cut, as it did in 2020.

And unfortunately, as in 2020 and in June when Turkmenistan was listed, the outcry would be minuscule. Few Central Asians, relatively, travel to the United States and most Americans are unfamiliar with the region. There is a Central Asian diaspora in the U.S. concentrated in New York, California, and Pennsylvania, according to research by Umida Hashimova, a doctoral student and graduate research assistant at the Institute for Immigration Research at George Mason University (and, I have to note, a former contributor to The Diplomat). In 2022, Kyrgyzstan opened a consulate in Chicago to serve the sizable Kyrgyz diaspora in the city; Kazakhstan maintains consulates in New York and San Francisco, and Uzbekistan in New York. But these diaspora communities, regardless of the status of their members – as visa-holders or permanent residents – do not represent a particularly significant constituency.

Not that the Trump administration hews to any constituency beyond the president.