US tells embassies to deny visas to applicants who say they fear returning to home country | Trump administration
Applicants searching for a short lived visa to the United States should now inform a consular officer that they haven’t skilled hurt and don’t fear returning to their home country, in accordance to new steering issued from the state division. If they reply sure or decline to reply to both query, the possibility they will probably be denied will skyrocket.
The Guardian obtained a state division cable which instructs officers at each US embassy and consulate globally to amend their course of and ask applicants to affirm they don’t fear mistreatment if they return home as a prerequisite for the interview to proceed.
The two new questions are: “Have you experienced harm or mistreatment in your country of nationality or last habitual residence?” and “Do you fear harm or mistreatment in returning to your country of nationality?”
The directive claims that the brand new course of is designed to lower down on what the division claims are individuals misrepresenting themselves through the visa course of.
“The high number of aliens claiming asylum in the United States indicates that many aliens misrepresent this intention to consular officers in the visa application process and at US ports of entry,” the directive reads, “and that information collected from visa applicants under current guidance is inadequate to identify those applicants who fear harm or mistreatment in returning to their home country.”
The cable was first reported by the Washington Post. It comes after a federal appeals court docket dominated that donald trump‘s invocation of an “invasion” on the southern border to curtail asylum seekers was illegal, a call that successfully reopens the United States to migrants fleeing persecution overseas.
The state division issued nearly 11m non-immigrant visas in fiscal yr 2024, and the newest information for 2025 remains to be being processed. The class covers everybody from individuals on trip and college college students to H-1B tech employees, seasonal farmhands and enterprise executives.
Under each US legislation and the 1951 Refugee Convention, the appropriate to search asylum just isn’t conditional on how somebody enters the country or what they informed a visa officer.
But Tuesday’s coverage creates a screening mechanism that may filter out victims of persecution, together with home abuse survivors, journalists who have obtained dying threats or members of a persecuted non secular minority, earlier than they ever attain US soil, no matter whether or not their said objective of journey is reputable.
There can also be a danger of perjury. An applicant who appropriately fears return however solutions “no” to get hold of a visa has made a fabric misrepresentation to a federal officer, which is a criminal offense that carries a everlasting bar from the United States.
The directive cites govt order 14161, signed by Trump on his first day in workplace in January 2025. The order directed federal businesses to improve immigration screening and vetting to stop entry of people deemed potential safety threats.
A assessment it mandated led to a White House proclamation in June 2025 suspending entry solely for nationals of 12 international locations and imposing partial restrictions on seven extra.
The US issued a separate directive In March of final yr ordering consular places of work to broaden screening of pupil visa applicants – together with social media vetting – to bar these who seem to be partaking in “terrorist activity”, which many took to imply supporting Palestine.
The cable additionally cross-references labeled operational steering held on inside state division methods, that means the total scope of the brand new coverage stays unknown outdoors the division.
The state division didn’t instantly reply to a request for remark.
