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US to Pause Immigrant Visa Processing for Nationals of 75 Countries

Document Process Management

Business Honor
24 January, 2026

U.S. Halts Immigrant Visa Processing for 75 Nations, Citing Public Charge Concerns and System Reassessment.

In an unprecedented move, the U.S. State Department has put a temporary stop on immigrant visa processing for people from 75 different countries, increasing the restrictions of what people can do to apply for permanent resident status based on an immigrant visa through an American Consulate outside the U.S. Tommy Piggott, Spokesman for the U.S. State Department, said that the intent of the new rule is to protect U.S. social services from having to provide assistance to travel immigrants who may otherwise become a public charge and, therefore, he is using the authority given to him by the U.S. government as the U.S. State Department to identify applicants who might potentially become public charges.

Because of this announcement, immigrant communities, along with legal attorneys and others involved in immigration law, have experienced widespread concern regarding this announcement and how it affects those who have submitted immigration applications to U.S. embassies or consulates around the world (U.S. Consulates). The majority of cases being processed for immigrant visas based on family relationships, or employment, have now been given an indefinite delay on when the immigration will be processed by an embassy or consulate resulting in a lot of uncertainty for thousands of potential immigrants.

The Secretary of State (Mr. Marco Rubio) has instructed the embassies/consular posts to deny any new applications for permanent residency that were submitted on or after the date of this announcement via a classified directive. In this second announcement, the Secretary of State outlined the rationale of the decision to cease accepting and processing immigration applications by indicating that this action will stop the continued "abuse of America's immigration system by those who want to take advantage of the American taxpayers.”