DOS To End Visa Exemption for Commonwealth

According to Antoinette Marwitz, the new U.S. Consul General in Toronto, the State Department is planning to change its regulations at 22 CFR 41.2(b) to require "aliens resident in Canada…having a common nationality with nationals of Canada" to obtain nonimmigrant visas to enter the United States. These individuals, who are citizens of British Commonwealth countries, are currently exempt from the nonimmigrant visa requirements, as well as from passport requirements if they are entering the U.S. from a Western Hemisphere country. Presumably, the passport exemption also would be eliminated, as would the exemption for such nationals resident in Bermuda.