Washington: Stepsiblings and half-siblings are allowed, but not nieces or nephews. Sons- and daughters-in-law are in, but brothers- and sisters-in-law are not. Parents, including in-laws, are considered "close family," but grandparents are not.
The State Department issued new guidelines Wednesday night to US embassies and consulates on applying a limited travel ban against foreign visitors from six predominantly Muslim countries. Enforcement of the guidelines will begin at 8pm Eastern on Thursday (10am AEST Friday).
The guidelines followed the Supreme Court's decision on Monday to allow parts of the Trump administration's revised travel ban to move forward, while also imposing certain limits, as the court prepares to hear arguments in October on the scope of presidential power over border security and immigration.
The court said the ban could not be imposed on anyone who had "a credible claim of a bona fide relationship with a person or entity in the United States."
The meaning of "bona fide relationship" was not precisely explained, and the phrase has created much uncertainty for migrants and others seeking to travel to the United States from the six countries - Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria and Yemen - covered by the revised travel ban that President Donald Trump issued in March. (An earlier version of the ban included Iraq.)
The Trump administration has now made the definition explicit.
According to a diplomatic cable obtained by The New York Times, "close family" is "defined as a parent (including parent-in-law), spouse, child, adult son or daughter, son-in-law, daughter-in-law, sibling, whether whole or half. This includes step relationships."
But it went on to state that "close family" does not include "grandparents, grandchildren, aunts, uncles, nieces, nephews, cousins, brothers-in-laws and sisters-in-law, fiances and any other 'extended' family members."
It is not clear how the administration arrived at the new definitions.
Under existing law, Americans may petition for immigration visas for "immediate relatives" - defined as the parents, spouses and children (under 21) of American citizens.
Other relatives may be granted immigration visas, but there is a ranking of preferences, and the visas are subject to numerical limitations: first, unmarried adult children of citizens; then spouses and children (under 21) of permanent residents; then married adult children of American citizens; and, finally, siblings of adult American citizens. But those definitions apply to people seeking to immigrate - not merely to visit.
A bona fide relationship with a "US entity," according to the cable, "must be formal, documented, and formed in the ordinary course, rather than for the purpose of evading the EO," or executive order.
The new guidelines make clear that someone who has accepted a job offer from a company in the United States or an invitation to deliver a lecture at a US university may enter, but that a nonprofit group may not seek out citizens of the affected countries and count them as clients for the purpose of getting around the ban.
"Also, a hotel reservation, whether or not paid, would not constitute a bona fide relationship with an entity in the United States," the guidelines note.
Immigration rights advocates who had challenged the travel ban in court said the ruling this week meant the vast majority of people seeking to enter the United States to visit a relative, accept a job, attend a university or deliver a speech would still be able to do so.
But Omar Jadwat, director of the American Civil Liberties Union's immigrants' rights project, said on Thursday the new guidelines troubled him, particularly as they could be read as creating arbitrary definitions of family relationships.
"Initial reports suggest that the government may try to unilaterally expand the scope of the ban - for example, by arbitrarily refusing to treat certain categories of familial relationships as 'bona fide,'" he said. "These reports are deeply concerning."
If the United States immediately starts enforcing new rules, Mr Jadwat said, "it means that everybody is going to be in the situation of kind of scrambling to understand whatever they put out, and work through the issues."
New York Times