3 things to know about Trump's new immigration visa freeze

3. What countries are already covered by visa freezes? 

The visa freeze builds on a presidential proclamation signed by President Donald Trump in December 2025 titled “Restricting and Limiting the Entry of Foreign Nationals to Protect the Security of the United States.”

In order to comply with the executive order, the State Department suspended the issuance of all immigrant and non-immigrant visas to nationals of 19 countries, effective Jan. 1.

Many of the countries included in the previous national security-related visa suspensions overlap with the countries included in last week’s suspensions: Afghanistan, Burma, Republic of the Congo, Eritrea, Haiti, Iran, Laos, Libya, Sierra Leone, Somalia, South Sudan, Sudan, Syria and Yemen. Immigrant and non-immigrant visas were also suspended from Burkina Faso, Chad, Equatorial Guinea, Mali and Niger. 

Unlike last week’s suspensions, the freeze first announced in December included exceptions for “certain diplomatic and official visas,” as well as “immigrant visas for ethnic and religious minorities facing persecution in Iran,” U.S. government employees, participants in certain major sporting events and lawful permanent residents. 

The previous executive order also suspended all immigrant visas and some non-immigrant visas from 19 countries. The list of countries subject to partial visa freezes for national security reasons overlaps with the public charge-related visa freezes, with Antigua and Barbuda, Cote D’Ivoire, Cuba, Dominica, The Gambia, Nigeria, Senegal, Tanzania, Togo and Venezuela included on both. Angola, Benin, Burundi, Gabon, Malawi, Mauritania, Tonga, Zambia and Zimbabwe are also covered by the partial visa freeze. 

The country of Turkmenistan is also subject to an immigrant visa freeze, enjoying the same exceptions as all countries included in the pause on both immigrant and non-immigrant visas other than “certain diplomatic and official visas.”