{"id":426708,"date":"2026-01-21T01:51:14","date_gmt":"2026-01-21T01:51:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/426708\/"},"modified":"2026-01-21T01:51:14","modified_gmt":"2026-01-21T01:51:14","slug":"world-cup-2026-us-opens-priority-visa-appointments-for-ticket-holders","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/426708\/","title":{"rendered":"World Cup 2026: US opens priority visa appointments for ticket holders"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">The order to indefinitely pause the processing of immigrant visa applications from those 75 countries will take effect on Wednesday, 21 January.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Prior to this move, Trump expanded a travel ban that came into force on 1 January, which bars nationals of countries on that list from entering the US.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Haiti and Iran, who have both qualified for the 2026 World Cup, are on the list of countries with full restrictions.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Ivory Coast and Senegal, who have also qualified, are on the list of countries with partial restrictions.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">The State Department said a Fifa Pass appointment does not allow people &#8220;who are otherwise not eligible&#8221; to be issued a visa, meaning fans from those four countries appear unlikely to be able to travel to the US for this summer&#8217;s tournament.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Guidance from the State Department specified there are exceptions for &#8220;any athlete or member of an athletic team, including coaches, persons performing a necessary support role, and immediate relatives&#8221; to the travel ban for the World Cup.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">However, it added &#8220;the exception does not apply to fans or spectators&#8221;. They can still submit visa applications but &#8220;they may be ineligible for visa issuance or admission to the United States&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">The US will host 78 of the 104 total matches at the World Cup, across 11 cities, including the final at MetLife Stadium in New Jersey.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The order to indefinitely pause the processing of immigrant visa applications from those 75 countries will take effect&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":426709,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[563],"tags":[64,63,596,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-426708","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-football","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-football","11":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/426708","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=426708"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/426708\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/426709"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=426708"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=426708"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=426708"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}