State Department Plans to Revoke Up to 200,000 Tourist, Business Visas

The Trump administration plans to revoke as many as 200,000 business and tourism visas from foreign nationals who used them to enter the U.S. before applying for asylum.

According to the Associated Press, the State Department is coordinating with the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to identify B-1/B-2 visas holders between 2016 and 2026, who claimed to be short-term visitors but later filed for asylum to stay in the country permanently.

Manifest immigration attorney Ana Gabriela Urizar says “A visa revocation does not automatically mean that someone will be deported or that their asylum case will be denied. A B-1/B-2 visa is a travel document used to seek admission to the United States, while an asylum application is a separate form of immigration relief. For individuals already in the United States with pending asylum cases, the immediate legal consequences will depend on their individual immigration history and procedural posture.”

The State Department has not officially confirmed the 200,000 figure. Separately, the agency says it has revoked about 175,000 visas over the past 18 months from people convicted or accused of crimes, or who publicly criticized U.S. policy, a different action from the B-1/B-2 asylum-related revocations described here.

If the Associated Press’s estimate holds, the action would be the largest single mass revocation of visas in U.S. history.

Who would be affected by these visa revocations?

The plan concerns foreign nationals who:

• Hold B-1 (business) or B-2 (tourism) non-immigrant visas issued between 2016 and 2026.
• Have applied for asylum in the United States or currently have a pending asylum case.
• Entered the U.S. claiming to be short-term visitors, then filed for asylum to remain permanently.

Manifest immigration attorney Urizar says foreign nationals who fall under this umbrella should consult with an immigration attorney. “Anyone who entered on a B-1/B-2 visa and later applied for asylum should not assume that a visa revocation means their asylum case is over. However, this is an important development, and affected individuals should have an immigration attorney review their case, particularly before traveling internationally or making any decisions that could affect their pending asylum application,” she says.