Travel Ban Expansion: Countries, Visa Pause, and Legal Challenges

The Trump travel ban of 2025 covers a list of 39 countries plus travelers using Palestinian Authority documents, under Presidential Proclamation 10998, signed December 16, 2025, and in force since January 1, 2026.¹ The proclamation replaced a narrower June 2025 order that had restricted 19 countries and put others on notice. Countries are split into two tiers: a full ban on entry for any visa, and a partial ban that closes off immigrant visas and certain temporary categories. A separate State Department action, effective January 21, 2026, layered on an indefinite immigrant visa pause for nationals of 75 countries.

Countries Under the Full Ban

Nationals of these 19 countries are barred from entering the United States on any immigrant or nonimmigrant visa:²

Afghanistan
Burkina Faso
Burma
Chad
Equatorial Guinea
Eritrea
Haiti
Iran
Laos
Libya
Mali
Niger
Republic of the Congo
Sierra Leone
Somalia
South Sudan
Sudan
Syria
Yemen

Individuals traveling on documents issued or endorsed by the Palestinian Authority are subject to the same full ban. Seven countries were elevated to this tier under the December expansion: Burkina Faso, Laos, Mali, Niger, Sierra Leone, South Sudan, and Syria.

Countries Under the Partial Ban

The partial ban suspends immigrant visas and nonimmigrant visas in the B-1 and B-2 (business and tourist), F (academic student), M (vocational student), and J (exchange visitor) categories. Consular officers are also directed to shorten the validity period of any other nonimmigrant visa issued to nationals of these countries.¹ The 20 partial-ban countries are:

Angola
Antigua and Barbuda
Benin
Burundi
Cote d’Ivoire
Cuba
Dominica
Gabon
The Gambia
Malawi
Mauritania
Nigeria
Senegal
Tanzania
Togo
Tonga
Turkmenistan
Venezuela
Zambia
Zimbabwe

Fifteen of these were added by the December proclamation: Angola, Antigua and Barbuda, Benin, Cote d’Ivoire, Dominica, Gabon, The Gambia, Malawi, Mauritania, Nigeria, Senegal, Tanzania, Tonga, Zambia, and Zimbabwe.

Turkmenistan’s Partial Easing

Turkmenistan sits in the partial tier but on modified terms. The proclamation stated that Turkmenistan had “engaged productively with the United States and demonstrated significant progress in improving its identity-management and information-sharing procedures,” and lifted the nonimmigrant visa suspension while keeping the immigrant visa ban in place.² No other country was removed from the restricted list.

Who the Ban Does Not Apply To

The proclamation applies only to foreign nationals who are outside the United States and do not hold a valid visa as of the effective date. Existing visas were not revoked.³ Several categorical exceptions from the earlier June order carry over:

U.S. lawful permanent residents (green card holders)
Dual nationals traveling on a passport from a non-designated country
Holders of diplomatic and certain other official visas
Athletes, coaches, and support staff traveling for the World Cup, the Olympics, or other major sporting events
Members of ethnic and religious minorities facing persecution in Iran

Three exceptions available under the June proclamation were eliminated on December 16, 2025: immigrant visas for spouses, parents, and minor children of U.S. citizens; visas for children being adopted by U.S. citizens; and Afghan Special Immigrant Visas.¹ Case-by-case national interest waivers remain theoretically available. State Department guidance issued in August 2025 directed that such waivers be “used rarely” and held to a “significantly higher standard” than prior practice.⁴

How Countries Ended Up on the List

The proclamation invokes Section 212(f) of the Immigration and Nationality Act and describes the selection as based on the “totality of the circumstances.” The specific factors named are:²

Identity management, meaning whether a country maintains reliable civil records rather than relying on documents that are handwritten or easily altered
Information sharing with U.S. agencies, including passport exemplars and threat-related data
Security conditions, including the presence of terrorist organizations, high criminality, or use of the territory for illicit activities
Visa overstay rates from DHS Entry/Exit Overstay Reports for tourist and student visa categories
Whether the country accepts the return of its nationals who are subject to U.S. removal orders
Citizenship-by-investment programs, which the administration flagged as high-risk on the theory that they let people acquire a secondary passport to work around existing restrictions⁵

The citizenship-by-investment factor explains the presence of Antigua and Barbuda and Dominica on the list. A June 2025 State Department memo signed by Secretary of State Marco Rubio cited passport security weaknesses, data-sharing deficiencies, visa overstay issues, and citizenship without residency requirements in those countries.⁶

The proclamation contains no expiration date but builds in a 180-day periodic review, under which countries can move between tiers or off the list if their vetting and cooperation improve.

The Separate 75-Country Immigrant Visa Pause

On January 14, 2026, the State Department announced a separate action: an indefinite pause on immigrant visa issuance for nationals of 75 countries, effective January 21, 2026.⁷ This is not part of the proclamation and is framed around “public charge” concerns, the standard in immigration law that allows a visa to be denied to someone deemed likely to become dependent on government benefits.

The 75-country list includes every country already restricted by Proclamation 10998 and adds dozens more, including Bangladesh, Brazil, Colombia, Ethiopia, Ghana, Guatemala, Iraq, Jamaica, Pakistan, and the Philippines.⁸ Two boundaries are worth understanding. The pause applies only to immigrant visas processed at U.S. embassies and consulates abroad, so nonimmigrant (temporary) visa applicants are not affected by this action. And applicants already in the United States adjusting status through USCIS are not affected by this pause unless they are separately covered by the 39-country proclamation.⁹

The Cato Institute estimated that the pause affects roughly 324,000 people annually based on 2024 visa data, close to half of all legal immigrants admitted in a typical year.⁷

USCIS Freeze on Benefits Inside the United States

A USCIS policy memorandum dated January 1, 2026 (PM-602-0194) directed an “adjudicative hold” on all pending immigration benefit requests filed by or on behalf of nationals of the 39 travel ban countries.¹⁰ Under the hold, green card applications, naturalization petitions, work permit requests, and visa petitions for nationals of those countries were frozen with final decisions deferred indefinitely. Related policies treated nationality from a travel ban country as a “significant negative factor” in discretionary decisions, required a “comprehensive re-review” of benefits approved for those nationals since January 20, 2021, and halted adjudication of affirmative asylum applications.¹¹

These USCIS policies were later struck down in court. The proclamation and the State Department pause were not.

Where the Legal Challenges Stand

Two lawsuits shape the current landscape. In Dorcas International Institute of Rhode Island v. USCIS (Case No. 1:26-cv-00132), Judge John J. McConnell ruled on June 5, 2026, that four USCIS policies violated the Administrative Procedure Act and ordered them vacated: the adjudicative hold, the negative-factor rule, the re-review of prior approvals, and the halt on affirmative asylum adjudications.¹² The judge found the agency lacked authority for an indefinite suspension, that federal law required decisions in “regular order,” and that the policies were arbitrary and capricious. He also cited “strong evidence of anti-immigrant animus” in statements by President Trump and former DHS Secretary Kristi Noem.¹¹

The ruling did not touch the presidential proclamation itself or the State Department’s separate 75-country visa pause. The government appealed to the First Circuit on June 12, 2026 (Docket No. 26-01703), and filed a motion to stay the district court’s order on June 19, 2026. USCIS said it would comply with the order while the appeal proceeded.¹³

The second suit, CLINIC v. Rubio (Case No. 1:26-cv-00858), was filed on February 2, 2026, in the Southern District of New York and challenges the 75-country immigrant visa pause.¹⁴ The plaintiffs argue the blanket pause violates the Administrative Procedure Act and the Immigration and Nationality Act, that it amounts to nationality-based discrimination, and that the “public charge” rationale is pretextual. The suit contends that public charge determinations must be made on an individualized basis rather than by wholesale exclusion of a nationality.¹⁵ The case was pending on cross-motions for partial summary judgment as of April 2026.

The Supreme Court’s 2018 decision in Trump v. Hawaii upheld the first-term travel ban under the same statutory authority the current proclamation invokes, Section 1182(f) of the Immigration and Nationality Act, giving the administration significant legal cover for the entry restrictions themselves.¹⁶ Chief Justice John Roberts wrote for the majority that the statute “exudes deference” to executive judgment on national security.¹⁷

Current Status

As of mid-2026, Proclamation 10998 remains in full effect. Its 39-country entry restrictions and the State Department’s separate 75-country immigrant visa pause are both operative and enforced at consulates and ports of entry.¹ The Dorcas ruling vacated USCIS’s internal benefits hold and related policies, and the government’s motion for an emergency stay of that order remains pending in the First Circuit. The CLINIC v. Rubio challenge to the 75-country pause is moving toward a summary judgment ruling in the Southern District of New York. Neither the underlying presidential proclamation nor the State Department’s separate visa policies have been blocked by any court.

1
NAFSA. Proclamation December 16, 2025 Travel Ban Effective January 1, 2026
2
White House. Restricting and Limiting the Entry of Foreign Nationals to Protect the Security of the United States
3
Phillips Lytle. Trump Administration Pauses Immigration Applications From 19 Countries Previously Subject to June 2025 Travel Ban
4
Greenberg Traurig. Travel Ban Impacts on U.S. Employers and Foreign National Employees
5
White House. Fact Sheet: President Donald J. Trump Restricts the Entry of Foreign Nationals
6
Cayman Compass. US Tightens Travel Rules for Some Caribbean Countries
7
Economic Policy Institute. State Department Pauses Immigrant Visa Processing for 75 Countries
8
U.S. Department of State. Immigrant Visa Processing Updates for Nationalities at High Risk of Public Benefits Usage
9
Yale OISS. Suspension of Immigrant Visa Processing for 75 Countries
10
USCIS. Hold and Review of USCIS Benefit Applications Filed by Aliens From Additional High-Risk Countries
11
American Immigration Council. Court Blocks USCIS Immigration Pause for 39 Countries
12
BAL. United States Federal Court Rules USCIS Adjudication Hold Policies Unlawful
13
Fragomen. United States Federal District Court Vacates Adjudications Hold and Related Policies
14
National Immigration Law Center. CLINIC v. Rubio
15
Democracy Forward. Immigrant Families, Workers, Legal Assistance Groups Challenge Trump Admin’s 75-Country Visa Ban in Federal Court
16
Supreme Court of the United States. Trump v. Hawaii, 585 U.S. (2018)
17
SCOTUSblog. Opinion Analysis: Divided Court Upholds Trump Travel Ban