U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio speaks during his end-of-year property league astatine the State Department successful Washington, D.C., U.S., Dec. 19, 2025.
Kevin Mohatt | Reuters
The State Department said Wednesday it volition suspend the processing of immigrant visas for citizens of 75 countries whose nationals are deemed apt to necessitate nationalist assistance portion surviving in the United States.
The State Department, led by Secretary Marco Rubio, said it had instructed consular officers to halt immigrant visa applications from the countries affected successful accordance with a broader bid issued successful November that tightened rules astir imaginable immigrants who mightiness go "public charges" successful the U.S.
The suspension, which volition begin Jan. 21, volition not use to applicants seeking non-immigrant visas, oregon impermanent tourer oregon concern visas.
"The Trump medication is bringing an extremity to the maltreatment of America's migration strategy by those who would extract wealthiness from the American people," the section said successful a statement. "Immigrant visa processing from these 75 countries volition beryllium paused portion the State Department reassess migration processing procedures to forestall the introduction of overseas nationals who would instrumentality payment and nationalist benefits."
The connection did not place which countries would beryllium affected by the pause, but President Donald Trump's administration has already severely restricted immigrant and non-immigrant visa processing for citizens of dozens of countries, galore of them in Africa.
A U.S. official said the database included Russia, Iran and Somalia as good as Afghanistan, Brazil and Egypt, among others. The authoritative spoke connected the information of anonymity due to the fact that the database had not been made nationalist yet.
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