Nationals of Dominica and Antigua and Barbuda can no longer obtain ten-year US visitor visas. Updated State Department reciprocity schedules for both countries now show B-1/B-2 visas capped at three months and a single entry, down from 120 months with unlimited entries.
Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saint Lucia, and Grenada are unaffected; their reciprocity schedules still show the old terms.
Not Just B Visas
The downgrade extends beyond tourist and business travel. Student visas (F-1, F-2), exchange visitor visas (J-1, J-2), intracompany transfers (L-1, L-2), and religious worker visas (R-1, R-2) all show the same restrictions for both countries.
Diplomatic categories escaped. A-1, A-2, and G-1 through G-4 visas remain at 60-month validity with multiple entries. Neither country holds an E-1 or E-2 treaty with the United States.
The Bonds
Shorter validity is not the only new friction. The US Embassy in Bridgetown, which handles visa applications for all Eastern Caribbean states, now requires that approved B-1/B-2 applicants from both countries post a bond of up to US$15,000. Consular officers set the amount at the interview.
For someone who once held a decade-long visa and paid a single application fee, the arithmetic has changed entirely. Every trip means a new application, a new bond, and another appearance in Barbados.
The Proclamation Connection
No official State Department statement links the reciprocity change to President Trump’s December 2025 proclamation, which imposed partial entry restrictions on 20 countries.
Reciprocity is supposed to reflect how foreign governments treat American travelers, not Washington’s policy concerns about those governments. But the timing makes that distinction hard to maintain.
Antigua secured a partial reprieve before year-end: Washington agreed to honor visas issued before December 31, 2025. Dominica has no such arrangement and has faced the full scope of restrictions since January 1.
On January 21, 2026, the Trump administration froze immigrant visa processing for 75 countries on public charge grounds. All five Caribbean citizenship by investment (CBI) nations were on that list.
Earlier Pressure
None of this arrived without warning. A State Department memo in June 2025 placed four Caribbean CBI jurisdictions on a draft travel ban list, giving them 60 days to address concerns about passport vetting and residency requirements. Caribbean prime ministers fought back publicly, defending their due diligence standards while pledging reforms.
Saint Kitts responded with mandatory residency requirements for CBI applicants. Antigua signalled it was considering extending its physical presence requirement from 30 to 90 days over five years.
A 180-day review cycle written into the December proclamation allows restrictions to be modified or lifted if affected countries improve screening and information-sharing. No rollback has materialized for either country.
Neither the government of Antigua and Barbuda nor the government of Dominica had issued a public response to the reciprocity change at the time of publication.
