The FIFA World Cup is now only five months away and one of the leading off-field storylines relating to the competition remains the highly stringent approach adopted by President Donald Trump’s administration towards access for foreigners into the United States.
Since Trump returned to power last January, the U.S. has imposed a string of travel bans on nationals from designated countries, including four countries (Senegal, Ivory Coast, Iran and Haiti) that have qualified for the 48-team competition.
This week, alarm bells sounded once more at FIFA after the Trump administration announced a pause on visa processing for immigrants from 75 countries, including highly prominent World Cup nations such as Brazil, Colombia and Egypt.
Here, The Athletic sets out what has changed during Trump’s administration and how this relates to players, officials and fans seeking to compete in or attend the tournament, which begins on June 11 and ends on July 19. The World Cup will be played across the United States, Canada and Mexico, with 75 per cent of games across 11 U.S. host cities, with the remaining 25 per cent shared between Canada and Mexico.
What is the impact of the visa pause announced this week by the U.S. State Department?
On Wednesday, a report by Fox News revealed that the Trump administration would suspend processing for immigrant visa applications from 75 countries. This was subsequently confirmed by a State Department spokesperson.
The pause immediately provoked widespread concern for visa applicants across the world, whose lives and plans may be upended, but from a World Cup perspective, it also caused consternation because it included 21 nations whose teams have either already qualified for the World Cup or are competing to make the competition via the play-off games, which take place in March.
FIFA has already opened ticket applications and, in its latest phase, claimed to have had over 500 million ticket requests, including requests from 211 of its member nations.
The already-qualified World Cup nations on the State Department list are: Algeria, Brazil, Colombia, Egypt, Ghana, Haiti, Iran, Ivory Coast, Jordan, Morocco, Senegal, Tunisia, Uzbekistan, and Uruguay.
Vinicius Junior and Bruno Guimaraes will be hoping to see as many Brazil fans as possible at the World Cup. (Wagner Meier / Getty Images)
Nations on the list who remain in play-off contention are as follows: Albania, Bosnia & Herzegovina, Jamaica, Kosovo, North Macedonia, Iraq, and Democratic Republic of the Congo.
However, the viral claims of World Cup visitors being impacted were not accurate. That is because the pause is related solely to processing immigrant visas — for those who wish to live permanently in the United States. Fans seeking to visit the U.S. for the World Cup would instead be applying for non-immigrant visas, likely on tourist or business visas, and the policy announced this week does not impact those applications.
How do Trump’s previous travel bans impact those who wish to attend the World Cup in the U.S.?
Travel bans introduced by the Trump administration currently threaten to prevent nationals from four World Cup-qualified countries from attending the tournament in the U.S.
In December, the U.S. government imposed travel bans, which affected fans from African nations Senegal and Ivory Coast. Iranian and Haitian nationals were already facing travel restrictions, which Trump signed off in June.
The December proclamation suspends entry into the U.S. for nationals of Ivory Coast and Senegal, both as immigrants and non-immigrants, including in the visitor category for business and tourism — the latter of which would be required to attend the World Cup.
A fact sheet by the White House cited an Overstay Report, which said nationals from Ivory Coast have an overstay rate of 8.47 per cent when travelling on a B1/B2 (business/visitor visa), while Senegal had an overstay rate of 4.30 per cent in the same category. This is the class of visa required for tourists. The fact sheet also claimed that Senegal has an overstay rate of 13.07 per cent in the student and cultural exchange visa categories, while Ivory Coast has an overstay rate of 19.09 per cent in those categories.
In June, Trump signed another travel ban in which Haiti and Iran were among 12 countries impacted, a step Trump described as essential to “protect the national security and national interest of the United States and its people”.
The executive order, announced on June 4, was titled: ‘Restricting the entry of foreign nationals to protect the United States from foreign terrorists and other national security and public safety threats’.
That document said that Haiti was targeted because a report by the Department of Homeland Security for Fiscal Year 2023 stated that Haitians who entered the U.S. on a B-1 or B-2 visa (for business or pleasure) had an overstay rate of 31.38 per cent, while the overstay rate for nonimmigrant students and exchange visitors was 25.05 per cent.
Haiti has been embroiled in political crises ever since its previously elected president Jovenel Moise was assassinated in 2021. The United Nations has said that gangs control 90 per cent of the territory in the Haitian capital, Port-au-Prince.
The dangerous conditions in Haiti have meant the national team played its home games outside of the country during its Concacaf qualification for the tournament, with World Cup qualification matches played in Nicaragua.
Haiti have qualified for the World Cup but fans may struggle to see them. (Ezequiel Becerra / AFP via Getty Images)
Trump’s executive order in June described Iran as a “state sponsor of terrorism”, alleging that the state “regularly fails to cooperate with the United States Government in identifying security risks”.
It means travel for Iranian nationals seeking to support the team in the World Cup may be limited.
While exemptions are made in all cases for World Cup athletes, teams and immediate relatives of players, far-reaching exemptions for supporters do not exist.
There are some exemptions, such as for nationals of designated countries traveling on government or NATO business, or lawful permanent residents of the United States.
In Iran’s case, there are also exemptions for dual citizens and those with a passport from a non-designated country. There will also be entry granted to Iranians on immigrant visas owing to ethnic or religious persecution in their home country.
A U.S. State Department spokesperson previously told The Athletic: “We are implementing the president’s directive to secure U.S. borders and protect American communities and citizens.”
Following the World Cup draw in December in Washington, D.C., the Haiti head coach, Sebastien Migne, said the attendance of his side’s fans at the 2026 World Cup finals was dependent on Trump.
When it was put to Migne that Trump is a peace prize winner (Trump won the inaugural FIFA Peace Prize ahead of the draw), the coach said: “Yeah, maybe he will continue with that (spirit) and he will open the possibility for the fans to come here.”
Haiti and Iran’s three group stage fixtures all take place in the U.S., but Senegal and Ivory Coast each have two games in the U.S. and one in Toronto, Canada, which may at least enable more fans to attend those games.
What about those travelling from countries not subject to travel restrictions?
For many nations competing in the tournament, including many in Europe, as well as Japan, South Korea and Australia, access should be more straightforward as they are part of a visa waiver program — ESTA — to enter the U.S.
This system means citizens of these countries can travel without obtaining a visa, so long as their trip for tourism or business does not exceed 90 days.
However, even this process may yet face greater scrutiny. This is because the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and the Customs and Border Protection (CBP) filed a proposal, published in the Federal Register in December, that proposed ESTA applicants should have to provide social media records from the past five years in their application. It said this would help comply with Trump’s executive order from January 2025, entitled “Protecting the United States From Foreign Terrorists and Other National Security and Public Safety Threats”.
It also proposed that CBP add further “high value data fields” to an ESTA application, including telephone numbers from the last five years, email addresses from the last 10 years, family number telephone numbers used in the last five years, immediate family members names, family member places of birth, biometrics including face, fingerprint, DNA, and iris, and business emails and telephone numbers used in recent years. The proposal has not yet been implemented and is currently open for public comment until February 9.
Countries who do not qualify for the ESTA programme require short-term non-immigrant visas. This includes Mexico, Argentina, Brazil, Colombia and Uruguay, among many other Latin American nations, as well as large swathes of the Middle East and Africa.
One of the big areas of concern for FIFA’s government affairs team in the lead-up to the World Cup has been troublingly long wait times for visa appointments at U.S. consulates around the world. This had threatened to impact fans of nations who have already qualified for the World Cup. For example, in recent times, there have been wait times exceeding six months in countries such as Morocco, Colombia and Ecuador, all of which are competing in the World Cup.
The State Department has previously succeeded in reducing extremely long wait times in Argentina and Brazil. The cause was helped by $50million set aside “to reduce passport backlogs and reduce visa wait times” in a bill signed into law by Joe Biden, who was president at the time, in March 2024.
Joe Biden speaking last year (Samuel Corum/Sipa/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
In November, the Trump administration took a step towards facilitating global access for fans when it announced the creation of the FIFA PASS. The FIFA PASS is not a visa in itself, but it does provide a prioritized visa appointment system for those who have purchased tickets to attend the tournament.
U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio stated: “The United States is offering prioritised appointments so FIFA World Cup fans can complete their visa interviews and show they qualify.”
He warned, “A ticket is not a visa and it doesn’t guarantee admission to the U.S.”, but said those who apply with a ticket could get an interview within “six to eight weeks”.
However, applicants will still be subject to the same level of stringent vetting, questioning and security clearances as any other individuals seeking to enter the country.
How does this all compare to statements previously made by FIFA and the administration?
During Trump’s first presidency, a period in which he previously imposed travel bans, FIFA President Gianni Infantino was asked about the importance of foreign nationals being able to attend the World Cup. This was particularly significant because the U.S., Canada and Mexico were, at that time, still battling against Morocco for the right to host the 2026 competition, which was eventually awarded to the North American countries in 2018.
Infantino told reporters in 2017: “It’s obvious when it comes to FIFA competitions, any team, including the supporters and officials of that team, who qualify for a World Cup need to have access to the country, otherwise there is no World Cup.”
Additionally, as part of the United States’ joint bid with Canada and Mexico to host the World Cup — dated May 2, 2018 — Trump wrote to Infantino and said he was confident that “all eligible athletes, officials and fans from all countries around the world would be able to enter the United States without discrimination”.
Throughout 2025, during the first year of Trump’s second presidency, Infantino repeatedly reiterated that “America will welcome the world”.
He said: “Everyone who wants to come here to enjoy, to have fun, and to celebrate the game will be able to do that.”
Infantino also claimed that the two FIFA tournaments over the next year would generate almost $50billion in economic output for the U.S. The question, however, is whether repeated news cycles about a more stringent approach to entering the U.S. may dissuade global travellers from attending both the tournament this summer and next year’s World Cup, leaving FIFA more reliant on a domestic audience and host cities at risk of falling short of their economic impact, as tourists are likelier to spend more money.
Speaking about the World Cup in May 2025, Vice President J.D. Vance said during a meeting of the White House’s World Cup task force: “Of course, everyone is welcome to come and see this wonderful event. We want them to come, we want them to celebrate, we want them to watch the games.
“But when the time is up, we want them to go home; otherwise, they will have to talk to Secretary Noem,” he said, referring to Kristi Noem, the Secretary of Homeland Security.
In December, the White House World Cup task force director, Andrew Giuliani, told The Athletic he could not comment on which countries may be considered for future travel bans.
He said: “He (Trump) is continually looking at everything he can do, not just to make this World Cup safe for American citizens, but for all those international visitors who are going to come here, while making it welcoming to all the fans that want to come here to enjoy the World Cup and have an absolute blast.”
He added: “Safety and security is the No 1 thing when it comes to this World Cup. Every visa decision is a national security decision. That’s key to highlight.”
