The Trump Administration said Tuesday that one country, the African nation of Chad, has been removed from the US travel ban list. The removal from the list means that Chadian citizens are now eligible to receive passport visas to visit the US.According to US officials, Chad was originally placed under the ban because the country was unable to provide terrorism and safety information used to screen foreign citizens entering the US, and it was also unable to provide recent samples of its passport to the Department of Homeland Security due to an office glitch.The White House said that President Trump signed a document on Tuesday saying because Chad had “improved its identity-management and information sharing practices,” it would be taken off the travel ban list. The State Department said the travel restrictions on the country would be lifted Friday.“Chad is a critical and vital partner to the US counterterrorism mission,” State Department Spokeswoman Heather Nauert said in a statement. “Chad has made significant strides and now meets the baseline criteria established in the Presidential Proclamation.“The statement went on to say that the US government welcomed the improvements from Chad, and the security changes represent “a clear off-ramp for countries placed on the travel restriction list.“The travel ban was first implemented as an executive order by President Trump in January 2017. After being blocked in February by a federal judge in Seattle, the ban was revised several times. The latest version of the travel ban was released in June 2017 and prohibited foreign citizens of six Muslim-majority countries (Iran, Syria, Libya, Somalia, Yemen and Sudan) from entering the US unless they had a “bona fide” relationship with a person or entity in America.Sign up for our daily newsletterEmail addressSign upI would like to subscribe to The Points Guy newsletters and special email promotions. The Points Guy will not share or sell your email. See privacy policy.In September 2017, the administration also added new travel restrictions to Chad, Iran, Libya, North Korea, Somalia, Syria, Venezuela and Yemen that were slowly phased in until December 2017, after the ban was upheld by the Supreme Court.H/T: Associated Press
