December 16, 2025 - expanded Travel Ban

• Presidential Proclamation 10998 of December 16, 2025, also titled Restricting and Limiting the Entry of Foreign Nationals to Protect the Security of the United States, modified the lists of countries identified in Presidential Proclamation 10949, and becomes effective at 12:01 a.m eastern standard time on January 1, 2026. Read:

  • Proclamation 10998 of December 16, 2025 published on whitehouse.gov

  • Proclamation 10988 published in the Federal Register at 90 FR 59717 (December 19, 2025)

  • White House Fact Sheet on Proclamation 10998 of December 16, 2025

  • DOS News Alert: Suspension of Visa Issuance to Foreign Nationals to Protect the Security of the United States (February 2, 2026)

June 4, 2025

President Trump signed an executive order that banned 12 countries either full or limited admission to the U.S. 7 other countries have been partially restricted or limited entry to the U.S.

The full or limited admission countries include: Afghanistan, Burma, Chad, Republic of the Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Haiti, Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, and Yemen 

Countries with partially restricted or limited entry include: Burundi, Cuba, Laos, Sierra Leone, Togo, Turkmenistan, and Venezuela. 

You can read more about this executive order and the specifics for each country here.

Effective immediately, the Department of State has updated its instructions for all nonimmigrant visa applicants scheduling visa interview appointments:

• Applicants for U.S. nonimmigrant visas (NIV) should schedule their visa interview appointments at the U.S. Embassy or Consulate in their country of nationality or residence.

• Nationals of countries where the U.S. government is not conducting routine nonimmigrant visa operations must apply at the designated embassy or consulate, unless their residence is elsewhere.  

More information can be found here: https://travel.state.gov/content/travel/en/News/visas-news/adjudicating-nonimmigrant-visa-applicants-in-their-country-of-residence-sep-6-2025.html 

Make sure to:

• Set your accounts to public. Keeping anything public, will cause an administrative processing action and cause more time for a result.

• Make sure to consider all media accounts - Linkedin, Line, RenRen, Instagram, TikTok, Facebook, etc.

• Look through your accounts for the last 5-10 years. This is how far back they go.

No social media account?

Any student/scholar without social media accounts in the last 5 years to:

1. consider all possibilities to ensure they're not overlooking something (e.g., LinkedIn)

2. be prepared to clearly articulate to the Consular Officer WHY they don't use social media. 

   • Consular Officers treat the interview like a human lie detector test, so this should just be another aspect of that.

   •  If the applicant can openly and honestly explain the reasons they don't use social media, they'll probably be fine. 

   • Creating an account just for the interview is deceptive, and if questioned about it, would put the student in the difficult position of having to lie or admit they tried to deceive the Consulate by creating an account, either of which would make them uncredible. 

Honesty is the best policy