The 2026 World Cup kicks off in less than 500 days and there is mounting concern that the U.S. is not ready to welcome the more than 6 million visitors who will flood North America for the tournament.
Fans, politicians and other stakeholders, including FIFA, the world governing body for soccer, fear rigid immigration rules and long visa wait times will make it difficult for supporters and even players to enter the U.S. for the games, tarnishing what FIFA president Gianni Infantino once promised would be the “most inclusive World Cup ever.”
“It’s going to be a massive problem,” said David J. Bier, the associate director for immigration studies at the Cato Institute, a libertarian public policy research organization. “There’s no one paying attention to this at all.”
Wait times for interviews for business and tourist visas, which built up under the Biden administration, top 330 days at 18 U.S. embassies and consulates, with some of the longest waits coming in India, Colombia, Peru and Honduras. And since World Cup tickets aren’t expected to go on sale until late this year, most fans planning to come to the U.S. for the games will have less than six months to secure the necessary paperwork.
“I am deeply concerned that there does not seem to be an appetite for making sure that the State Department is funded and prepared and focused on this issue,” said Rep. Sydney Kamlager-Dove (D-Los Angeles), who last fall led a bipartisan group of 53 lawmakers in urging Antony J. Blinken, President Biden’s secretary of State, to lean into sports diplomacy as the U.S. prepares to host seven major global sporting events, including the World Cup and 2028 Olympics in Los Angeles, during the next decade.
“It is untenable that we would not surge resources to make sure that we have the right folks in the right places,” Kamlager-Dove said. “They need to facilitate these interviews and get these visas to those who are trying to enter our country for legitimate reasons. It will be unacceptable that we allow our country to fail at putting our best foot forward for the World Cup.”
A spokeswoman for the State Department said in a statement the agency is “committed to protecting our nation and its citizens by upholding the highest standards of national security and public safety through our visa process.”
There’s a lot at stake. U.S. prestige would take a humiliating blow if red tape and bureaucratic bungling closed the borders to World Cup visitors. There would also be an economic cost. SoFi Stadium in Inglewood, which borders Kamlager-Dove’s district, will host eight World Cup games. That is expected to bring 180,000 visitors and an economic impact of nearly $600 million to greater Los Angeles, according to a report by Micronomics Economic Research and Consulting.
The tournament, the largest in World Cup history with an expanded field of 48 teams and 104 matches, will be co-hosted by the U.S., Canada and Mexico and is expected to draw nearly twice as many visitors from June 11-July 19, 2026, as the last World Cup in Qatar in 2022. And 78 of those matches will be played in 11 U.S. cities, meaning this country could enjoy more than $3.75 billion of the economic boost the entire tournament is expected to generate.
“This is really an unprecedented opportunity that we have as a country over the next 10 years,” said Travis Murphy, a former U.S. diplomat who is the founder and chief executive of Jetr Global Partners, a Washington-based firm that works to solve visa and immigrant issues for athletes and sports franchises. “If we want those people, then we are going to have to make changes. How we manage the next few years — and immigration is a fundamental component of that — is really going to be key to whether or not we’re successful.”
(Mark Schiefelbein / Associated Press)
The Trump administration and its supporters could have a lot to say about that. During his first term, when the U.S. and its two neighbors were bidding to host the 2026 World Cup, President Trump signed a trio of letters in which he promised FIFA that World Cup organizations and their fans would not face restrictions coming to the U.S. for the tournament.
In one letter Trump wrote that “all eligible athletes, officials and fans from all countries around the world would be able to enter the United States without discrimination.”
FIFA officials say concerns over visa wait times — which also threatens to impact the FIFA Club World Cup, to be played in 11 U.S. cities this summer — are overblown and point to those letters and to Trump’s personal relationship with Infantino as proof that the president is committed to the World Cup, an event FIFA considers too big to fail.
“It is worth noting that the incoming administration [was] in office during the successful bid process for 2026, and signed the government guarantees as part of that process,” the organization said in a statement. “We continue to work with various departments and agencies of the U.S. government to ensure the U.S. can capitalize on this once-in-a-generation opportunity to tap into billions of dollars in positive financial benefits and goodwill, and bring millions of people from different nations and communities together to celebrate in the United States.”
Trump referenced the World Cup during a pre-inauguration rally in Washington D.C. last week and in remarks to the World Economic Forum in Davos. Despite that, some FIFA officials remain quietly concerned, people with knowledge about the situation not authorized to discuss it publicly told The Times.
In its statement to The Times, the organization said it will “continue to push visa information to fans and other relevant stakeholders through various FIFA channels” and is working in ensure fans can apply for visas without having to purchase a ticket first, a delay that would have made it nearly impossible for people in dozens of countries to attend the tournament.
While Trump has spoken favorably of the World Cup, he has also made a crackdown on immigration, legal and otherwise, a centerpiece of his administration’s agenda, tightening restrictions and reducing staff, which could introduce new friction for both business travelers and tourists seeking visas.
On Sunday, for example, as part of a standoff with Colombian president Gustavo Petro, Trump suspended the processing of visas and canceling appointments at the U.S. Embassy in Bogota, where the wait was already 700 days. That’s significant because only the U.S. and Brazil, among foreign countries, bought more tickets to the 2018 World Cup than Colombia, the last in which the country qualified to play.
Rep. Sydney Kamlager-Dove (D-CA) is among those raising the alarm on the visa approval delay issues that could cut off many fans from attending the World Cup and Los Angeles Olympics.
(Nathan Posner / Anadolu via Getty Images)
The State Department, now run by former Florida Sen. Marco Rubio, manages visa processing and has pledged to lower wait times but it has also said it will not treat soccer fans preferentially. That contrasts with Russia and Qatar, the last two World Cup hosts, who streamlined the process for ticket-holders to enter their countries.
The Laken Riley Act, named for a Georgia nursing student who was killed last year by an undocumented Venezuelan immigrant who was convicted of murder, could jumble things further. Among other things the bill, approved by Congress and sent to the president’s desk last week, gives individual states the power to demand the government withhold visas from citizens of countries that refuse to accept the return of deported nationals. That would allow, for example, Iowa or Mississippi, states which are hosting no World Cup activities and thus have no financial stake in the games, to sue to block the issuance of visas to people from more than a dozen countries.
“It’s complicated for sure,” said Bier, who testified before Congress on immigration issues last week. “They could be pressured into blocking all visas. It could be a very huge problem if it is fully implemented.”
Trump’s harsh rhetoric may pose additional hurdles. Although much of the president’s ire has been aimed at immigrants without legal status, many of his supporters have conflated that into opposition for all forms of immigration, including the admission of highly skilled foreign workers and even tourists. That could make it hard for the State Department to start approving hundreds of thousands of visas for World Cup visitors, even if they qualify.
During Trump’s first term, visas for temporary nonimmigrant visas — the kind typically issued to tourists — fell 10% between 2017-19, then plunged 54% in Trump’s final year, according to the Migration Policy Institute, although the COVID-19 pandemic also had an impact on that decline.
“The Trump administration didn’t prioritize visa processing,” Bier said. “It really slowed down visa processing, removing requirements to process visas quickly. So I can’t imagine that there’s going to be some full-court press to get these visas processed in a short amount of time.”
Attempting to get a U.S. visa can be a complicated, cumbersome and lengthy ordeal. Applicants must begin by filling out Form DS-160, which the State Department says typically takes 90 minutes to complete. Applicants must also submit extensive documentation about their personal lives, education, employment history and the places they intend to visit in the U.S. — all in English — and pay a $185 nonrefundable fee at the time of their in-person interview at an embassy or consulate.
Those rules do not apply to people in the 42 countries covered by the Visa Waiver Program, a cooperative agreement between the U.S. and partner nations such as Japan, the United Kingdom, Germany, New Zealand, France and Australia, which enables citizens of those countries to travel to the U.S. for up to 90 days for tourism or business without a visa.
In fiscal year 2023, 1.8 million people, nearly a quarter of those who applied for visitor visas, were denied. In that same year, according to the Department of Homeland Security, 1.31% of foreign visitors to the U.S. overstayed their visas.
“I don’t think anyone is suggesting that we compromise our national security,” said Kamlager-Dove, a member of the House Foreign Affairs committee. But, she added “there are some real things that they can be doing and hopefully they find the courage to do it. It’s not that hard. They need more people to take care of these applications and to do these interviews.”
Staff writer Tracy Wilkinson contributed to this story.
