US cancels over 300,000 visas since January 2025, says State Department

WASHINGTON: The United States State Department has announced that more than 300,000 visas have been cancelled since the start of President Donald Trump’s second term in January 2025. The department described the figure as the highest in US history.

The department released the figures on its official X account. It said an unprecedented review of visa holders had been carried out under Secretary of State Marco Rubio. An update issued in August had put the number at more than 175,000.

The department said most of the cancellations were based on public safety concerns, immigration violations, criminal activity, fraud or misrepresentation, or information showing that the person was no longer eligible for the visa.

According to the State Department, more than 4,000 visas were cancelled on grounds of “birth tourism”, meaning travelling to the United States to give birth so that the child gets US citizenship. More than 700 of these visas belonged to Chinese nationals.

In 2025, the US Bureau of Consular Affairs set up the Continuous Vetting Centre in Washington. The department said it has cancelled more than 23,000 visas. Most of these cases involved criminal or public safety matters: 25 per cent for assault and related offences, 22 per cent for drink-driving, 7 per cent for theft and 7 per cent for drug use or distribution.

The department wrote on X that a visa is a privilege, not a right, and that those who break the law will not be allowed to stay in the United States.

The figures released do not include a country-wise breakdown, apart from Chinese nationals in the birth tourism cases. It was also not stated how many of the cancelled visas belonged to Indian nationals.