The State Department has expanded its definition of close family to include grandparents and other relatives that constitute a bona fide US relationship for visa applicants and refugees from six mainly Muslim nations. <br/><br/>In response to a Hawaii federal judge's order last week, the department yesterday instructed US diplomats to consider grandparents, grandchildren, brothers-in-law, sisters-in-law, aunts and uncles, nephews and nieces and first cousins to meet the criteria for applicants from the six countries to receive a US visa. <br/><br/>They had been omitted by the department after the Supreme Court partially upheld the Trump administration's travel ban in June. Initially, it had included only parents, spouses, children, adult sons or daughters, sons-in-law, daughters-in-law and siblings. <br/><br/>Yesterday's instructions change that. US District Judge Derrick Watson had ruled on Thursday that excluding grandparents and others defied common sense.