US green card interviews are on hold worldwide, student and work visas are subject to new restrictions, and citizenship is under fresh scrutiny. Here’s what the latest US immigration crackdown means for people planning to study, work or settle in America.
Why did the US cancel immigrant visa interviews?
US embassies and consulates around the world have postponed immigrant visa interviews so that officers can train on a stricter “public charge” test: whether an applicant is likely to rely on public benefits.
The freeze came days after a federal judge struck down a separate 75-country visa block built on the same idea.
The State Department emphasises that officers must apply the test “comprehensively and consistently”.
The factors themselves are not new: age, health, family size, money, education, skills and job prospects. What has been added is the instruction to apply them more aggressively, including by issuing public charge bonds in some cases.
Sarah Pierce, director of social policy at Washington-based think tank Third Way – who is also a former US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) analyst – said the Donald Trump administration “chose the most disruptive possible way to roll this out”.
Charles Kuck, an Atlanta immigration lawyer who last year represented more than 100 students against the administration, said officers were being trained “on how to deny cases under public charge rules”.
Family applicants would find it “much harder to immigrate”, he said, adding that the change would also hurt diversity lottery applicants.
Does this cancel my green card petition?
A cancelled interview does not usually erase an approved petition or a priority date.
“State is postponing the interview; it has not announced that these underlying approvals are being revoked,” Pierce said.
“The real harm is delay” for people who have already booked flights, sold homes or attended medical examinations. “State has not said when normal scheduling will resume,” she said.
Diversity visas generally must be issued by the end of the financial year, which for the US government is September 30. Make sure the National Visa Centre has a working email, phone number and mailing address for you.
Does the pause affect non-immigrant visas?
No. This freeze applies to green-card interviews abroad. H-1B, student and tourist windows are not part of it.
However, the public charge provision could legally apply to non-immigrants too, Kuck noted, while adding that “as of right now, it only appears to be applying to immigrant visa holders”.
That does not mean those visas are easy to obtain. Pierce said that much of the H-1B agenda was “forward-looking”: the proposed US$103,000 fee is not in force yet and a new lottery is not the problem for people already selected.
The people most exposed are those who still need a stamp outside the US, according to Pierce.
What is the public charge test?
Officers weigh age, health, family, money, education, skills and sometimes past benefits. A proper I-864 affidavit of support was normally enough in family cases, unless there were “unusually significant concerns”, she said.
While Pierce would not call the new push “a legal blanket ban”, she warned that the danger was that aggressive implementation “begins functioning like one for certain populations”.
Kuck’s worry is the vacuum. “There is no guidance in the statute,” he said, which “allows for a great deal of mischief”.
What should I do if my visa interview was cancelled?
If the appointment is gone, the petition usually is not. Kuck’s advice is to stay put unless you already hold a work visa that lets you return and keep the job.
Most people who received the cancellation email are not in this position. “They should remain in their home country until the interview is reset,” Kuck said.
Can the US revoke an petition after it is approved?
“A consular officer does not simply get to overrule USCIS,” Pierce said. If the interview turns up fraud, a big change in facts or a clear error, the officer can send the file back. USCIS then decides.
Her advice to applicants is to know what was filed in your name and “don’t guess when an officer asks about something you don’t know”.
Family cases are hard to unwind, because “somebody is either a spouse or not a spouse”, according to Kuck. Employment files get more second guessing. Many returned petitions were later reapproved, he said.
Should I leave the US to stamp my visa?
If you already have lawful status, do not travel unless you must.
“No one should leave the United States unless they have an emergency need to travel,” Kuck said.
Pierce’s test was the same. “Think harder before international travel if returning depends on a new visa,” she said. An approved O-1 petition was not a reason to fly out for a stamp.
What documents should visa holders carry in the US?
Carry proof of status: the green card, or an I-94 plus an I-797 or employer letter. Keep copies where family can reach them, Pierce said.
“This administration has dramatically increased the volume and aggressiveness of immigration enforcement, which makes the consequences of bureaucratic mistakes much higher.”
Workers flying in should carry pay stubs and a job letter, Kuck said. People with no lawful status, including those on a 240-day extension after an H-1B has ended, or those with only a pending green card or asylum case, should not travel.
What is changing for F-1 students?
New arrivals lose open-ended duration of status. They get a fixed date, generally up to four years, plus a 30-day grace period, down from 60.
Students already in the US on September 15 can usually keep the old terms until they leave and come back. Travel can switch the clock. “Work with your foreign student adviser,” Kuck said.
How can OPT students avoid unlawful presence?
Do not overstay. Put the end date on a calendar and “do not take any chances of leaving even one day late”, Kuck said.
A tidy record in the Student and Exchange Visitor Information System will not save you if the I-94 has expired. The advice is to track the I-94, I-20, EAD and any pending filing, and act before the earliest date.
What if an H-1B worker is laid off?
The law still offers 60 days, but Kuck advised not to trust it. “Legally, they still have the 60 days. Yeah, but in reality, they have none.” File to change status before the job ends.
Pierce said that people who already held valid H-1B status inside the United States were less exposed than those who needed a stamp abroad.
Can the US take away citizenship?
Only through a narrow civil case, and it is still rare – the Justice Department says it has filed 123 such cases since 20 January 2025, which is a record.
“The government cannot simply strip citizenship from a naturalised American because it later decides that person is undesirable,” Pierce said. It must show citizenship was illegally procured or obtained by hiding a material fact.
What had changed was “the government’s appetite for reopening old files”, she added.
Many of Kuck’s clients used a second identity after an old deportation order. “If you were deported under a different name, you should be very worried.”
What about the citizenship of children born there?
The United States cannot take away citizenship of children born in the US because of their parents’ immigration status, the Supreme Court ruled in June. Denaturalising a parent is a separate process and does not, by itself, revoke the citizenship of a child who was a citizen at birth.
In Trump vs Barbara, the court held that children born in the United States to parents who were in the country unlawfully or only temporarily “are citizens at birth”.
“Birthright citizenship is fundamentally different from naturalisation,” Pierce said. A citizen at birth did not “procure” naturalisation, so the government “cannot simply use the denaturalisation process to retroactively turn that person into a non-citizen”.
Kuck pointed out that children and spouses were not automatically stripped of their citizenship when the government was targeting visa fraud.
Are green card holders safe to travel?
The ones at risk will be those on the way back to the US who are residents convicted of a crime after they received the card, according to Kuck. “No one else needs to worry about it.” Long trips can still raise old abandonment questions. Carry the card.
Who is safe, and who is at high risk?
“The vast majority of people who follow the rules, they’re fine. That’s 99 per cent,” Kuck said. The heat is on old fraud, a second name or no status.
Pierce offered a different caution: following the rules no longer means a calm process. “Build in more time. Expect more scrutiny.”
Highest risk: prior fraud, travel without status, diversity visa deadlines and family applicants who look poor under a tougher public-charge screen.
Is legal immigration to the US still possible?
Yes, but it will be slower, with more scrutiny. “There is no doubt that this administration is engaged in a systematic attack against legal immigration,” Pierce said.
Asked what she would tell people, Pierce said: “I would tell them to stop assuming that following the rules guarantees a smooth process.” The agenda “is not confined to illegal immigration. It has made a deliberate choice to make legal immigration harder as well.”
Kuck’s advice was to keep a backup plan for now. “This episode will rest in the ash heap of history soon enough.” Until interviews resume, treat a cancelled date as a delay, not a dead case. -- SOUTH CHINA MORNING POST
