The United States has paused all immigrant visa applications as the Trump administration steps up efforts to tighten entry rules and prevent newcomers from depending on public benefits.
The State Department began rolling out the measure in early August across its embassies and consulates worldwide. Visa appointments were reshuffled to make room for what officials described as “in-depth training.”
Since the start of the year, the State Department has been introducing revised guidance and training designed “to ensure all consular officers are fully equipped to evaluate every visa applicant comprehensively and consistently.”
According to the Financial Times, applicants who had already secured interview slots received emails notifying them that their appointments had been cancelled and that a new date and time would be provided later.
The change is intended to ensure that people granted visas do not go on to rely on public assistance, The Guardian reported.
It also forms part of a wider Trump administration immigration strategy aimed at tightening controls on both legal and illegal immigration, while making the process of entering the US more selective.
Earlier this week, the administration also unveiled plans to revoke visas from asylum seekers who originally entered the United States on tourism or business visas.
Tens of thousands of asylum seekers could be affected by the proposal, making it potentially the largest visa revocation action in US history.
The US under President Donald Trump has halted all immigrant visa applications. The White House suggested ‘up to 200,000 visas’ would be affected
The administration said it is now working with the Department of Homeland Security to identify and revoke the visas of people who it said had come to America billing themselves as temporary visitors but then applied for asylum so they could stay permanently.
‘Obtaining a visa in order to seek asylum is fraud – which is grounds for visa revocation,’ State Department spokesman Tommy Pigott said in a statement that confirmed press reports about the new policy.
The White House, in a post on X, suggested ‘up to 200,000 visas’ would be affected and claimed it would be the ‘largest mass visa revocation in history’.
The State Department neither confirmed nor denied that number. Mr Pigott said: ‘The number of revocations remains dynamic and will be done on a rolling basis.’
Early this month the department said that since President Donald Trump returned to power in January last year, more than 175,000 foreigners had seen their US visas revoked on grounds ranging from criminal offences, including driving under the influence and praising the killing of the Right-wing activist Charlie Kirk.
The administration also recently revoked the visas of Mexican officials, including the son of former president Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador. This prompted a complaint from the current president, Claudia Sheinbaum.
Mr Trump, who won re-election in large part on his promise to fight illegal immigration, has expelled huge numbers of people. He has also restricted the entry of foreigners who do go by the rules and gone after those who overstay their visas.
Some of these measures have been challenged and curtailed by the courts. Last Friday a federal judge struck down a government ban on visas to nationals from 75 countries who wish to settle in the country indefinitely, including Afghanistan, Brazil, Egypt, Iran, Iraq, Nigeria, Somalia, Thailand and Yemen.
The Trump administration is also planning to expand vetting of the social media accounts of visa applicants. ‘We are making clear that a visa is a privilege – not a right,’ Pigott said on Tuesday.
Mr Trump’s immigration crackdown has been widely condemned by human rights groups as being discriminatory and in violation of free speech and due process rights.
Rights groups also say the crackdown has created an unsafe environment in the US, especially for ethnic minorities who have raised concerns about racial profiling.
While Mr Trump campaigned in 2024 on a platform of stopping illegal immigration, his administration has also made legal immigration more difficult – for example, by imposing new and expensive fees for applicants of certain work.
