I thought I would update what we know about the recent travel ban and what is likely to happen next.

The existing travel ban has been suspended due to court decisions in the State of Washington. This was a temporary “stay” on the EO allowing time to have a court case. The stay (a restraining order) could not have been granted if the travel ban itself was likely to have been found illegal in the future court case.

The government appealed to have the stay removed (to reinstate the ban) and that appeal was denied. So – at the moment the travel ban is not in force. Trump and his administration are of course angry at that decision, because apparently no one explained to them that his power does not overrule laws. Hahaha!

Now, Trump had a couple of options. He said immediately that he would continue to fight to implement that EO. However, that was always going to be a waste of time – it will take weeks and months to go through that court case. However, his other option was to revoke that EO and try to implement another similar EO. According to statements he has made, that is what he plans to do. He has said this for a couple of weeks now, but there seems to be an increasing chance that Trump will introduce another Executive Order on travel, perhaps including a “travel ban”. That could come as early as this week.

So – it is impossible to speculate what any new EO will do. Obviously Trump has “lost”, and he will be keen to regain his “power”. So – it is likely that a new EO will have elements of the old EO. But I cannot guess whether the same countries will be affected, whether more or less countries will be affected or who will be included. Please don’t ask me to speculate about that – there is simply no point in my doing that.

However, if you have been issued with an immigrant visa, and particularly if you are from a Muslim majority country or one of the 7 mentioned before , you should be considering an activation trip to the USA as soon as possible. Once you have become an LPR you are safe, until that point you could find your visa being revoked as it was during the first travel ban.

 

Once Trump announces the new EO (if there is one) I will of course do all I can to explain the impact. As I mentioned, please do not ask me to speculate further at this point since nothing has actually changed.