US pauses immigrant visa applications worldwide: report

The Trump administration has paused immigrant visa applications worldwide to accommodate “in-depth training” for consular officers, as it seeks to screen out applicants deemed likely to need US assistance, The Financial Times (FT) reported on Tuesday.

The move marks another step in the Trump administration’s signature drive to reduce immigration into the United States.

Applicants with scheduled interviews at US embassies and consulates received emails saying their appointments were being rescheduled and that they would receive notice of new dates and times.

“A more prosperous America means ensuring that visa applicants are not likely to become a public charge, as defined under US law and regulation, and not likely to become dependent on US public benefits reserved for qualified Americans in need,” a State Department spokesperson told the FT.

The department this month launched “a global training initiative” to “ensure all consular officers are fully equipped to evaluate every visa applicant comprehensively and consistently,” the spokesperson said.

Brian Simmons, senior US consular manager at immigration law firm Fragomen in Washington, said many affected applicants had “already spent thousands of dollars and disrupted their lives to attend scheduled interviews, only to have their appointments cancelled at the last minute”.

The State Department did not say when appointments would resume, saying: “To accommodate this in-depth training, appointments for visa services will be adjusted.”

A privilege, not a right

The US government plans to revoke the visas of foreigners who came to the country for tourism or business but sought to stay longer by applying for asylum, the State Department said on Tuesday.

The administration said it is now working with the Department of Homeland Security to identify and revoke the visas of people who, it said, came 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 two hundred thousand 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.

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 2025, some 175,000 foreigners had seen their US visas revoked on grounds ranging from criminal offenses, including driving under the influence, to praising the killing of the right-wing activist Charlie Kirk.

The administration also recently revoked the visas of Mexican officials, including the son of the former president Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador. This prompted a complaint from the current president, Claudia Sheinbaum.

Trump, who won reelection in large part on his promise to fight illegal immigration, has expelled huge numbers of people who were in the country without proper residence papers.

But he has also worked to restrict the entry of foreigners who do go by the rules and has gone after those who overstay their visas after they expire.

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.

These countries included 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.