The United States government has implemented sweeping new visa screening rules that would effectively bar persecuted individuals from obtaining US travel documents before they even reach US soil. State Department cable, independently vetted The Washington Post and Watchmandirects consular officers at every U.S. embassy and consulate around the world to ask visa applicants if they fear returning to their home country and to reject those who say they do.
What the State Department’s new visa rules say
The directive, issued under Secretary of State Marco Rubio, requires consular officers to ask two specific questions of all nonimmigrant visa applicants: “Have you experienced harm or ill-treatment in your country of nationality or your country of last habitual residence?” and “Do you fear harm or ill-treatment upon return to your country of nationality or permanent residence?”
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Applicants must verbally answer “no” to both questions in order for the consular officer to proceed with issuing the visa. Those who answer “yes” or refuse to answer face almost certain rejection of their travel documents.
The cable states that “the applicant’s fear of returning to his country of nationality or permanent residence casts doubt on the applicant’s intended purpose of travel and immigrant intent at the time of visa application.”
Why the timing of this directive matters
The directive was issued days after a federal appeals court ruled that the Trump administration’s declaration of an “invasion” of the US-Mexico border to restrict asylum seekers was illegal, a decision that effectively reopened the United States to migrants fleeing persecution abroad.
It was not immediately clear when asylum proceedings would resume, and the administration indicated its intention to challenge the decision on appeal.
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The State Department issued nearly 11 million nonimmigrant visas in fiscal year 2024. The nonimmigrant visa category covers a wide range of travelers, from tourists and university students to H-1B technology workers, seasonal agricultural workers and business executives.
How this policy blocks persecuted visa applicants
Critics say the new policy creates a pre-departure screening mechanism that would filter out victims of persecution, including victims of domestic violence, journalists who have received death threats and members of persecuted religious minorities, before they can enter the United States.
Jeremy Konyndyk, president of Refugees International, told the Washington Post that the rules represent a fundamental abandonment of American values around protection. “They seek to systematically demolish any means by which a persecuted person might seek protection and safety in the United States,” he said.
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Konyndyk added: “What’s really striking about this is how it completely abandons any pretense that the US cares about protection from persecution. You’re specifically asking someone, ‘Are you being persecuted in your country?’ And if they say ‘yes,’ the official response from the U.S. government is, ‘Okay, stay there.'”
He argued that if such vetting procedures had existed in previous decades, they would have barred Iranians fleeing the revolution in the 1970s, Soviet dissidents during the Cold War, and German Jews in the 1930s. “A lot of people would be left out of it,” he said.
Legal conflict at the heart of the new policy
Under both US law and the 1951 Refugee Convention, the right to seek asylum is not conditional on how someone enters the country or what they disclose to a visa officer. Legal specialists note that the new rules create direct tension with an existing statute that allows foreign nationals to seek asylum once in the country if they face “persecution or a well-founded fear of persecution” at home.
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This policy also creates a risk of perjury. An applicant who has a genuine fear of returning home but answers “no” to secure a visa has made a material false statement to a federal officer, which is a felony punishable by permanent ban from the United States. The cable does not specifically say what would happen to a visa holder who later applies for asylum after denying fear of harm, but such a scenario could expose the applicant to visa fraud charges and possible deportation.
How the US directive fits into a broader US crackdown on immigration
The directive cites Executive Order 14161, which Trump signed on his first day in office in January 2025, which directs federal agencies to improve immigration screening to prevent entry of those considered potential security threats.
The Trump administration has taken a number of measures to reduce both legal and illegal immigration. These include a travel ban for citizens of 39 countries, cuts to student and temporary work visas and the cancellation of Temporary Protected Status (TPS) for hundreds of thousands of migrants from 13 countries.
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The number of asylum seekers at the southwest border dropped from nearly 40,000 a month in December 2024 to just 26 in February 2025, a month after Trump took office, according to an analysis by David Bier, director of immigration studies at the libertarian Cato Institute.
On Wednesday, the U.S. Supreme Court is scheduled to hear oral arguments in a case challenging the administration’s attempt to revoke TPS for 350,000 Haitians and 6,000 Syrian immigrants.
The cable also cross-references classified operating instructions in the State Department’s internal systems, meaning the full scope of the new policy remains unknown outside the department.
What the US State Department says about the new visa rules
In response to questions, the State Department defended the directive as consistent with its national security mandate. “Under President Trump, the State Department is using all available tools and resources to determine whether each visa applicant meets the requirements of U.S. law,” a department spokesman said, adding that consular officers “are the first line of defense for U.S. national security.”
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The department also said, “As Secretary Rubio has repeatedly made clear, a U.S. visa is a privilege, not a right. Individuals who do not intend to comply with our laws, including leaving the United States before the end of their authorized stay, should not apply for a visa.”
