United States President Donald Trump’s administration has ordered its embassies abroad to stop scheduling new visa interview appointments for students and exchange visitors, according to an internal cable seen by news agencies on Tuesday.
In the memo, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said that the pause is in place because the State Department plans to expand the screening of student applicants’ social media.
The Trump administration has intensified its crackdown on U.S. universities, particularly targeting international students who have expressed support for Palestinians in Gaza.
The latest move aligns with broader efforts to regulate campus activism, with visa revocations becoming a tool to silence dissent. One such case involves Ranjani Srinivasan, a PhD candidate at Columbia University, whose student visa was revoked by the U.S. State Department in March, despite it being valid until 2029.
Srinivasan claims she was singled out due to her social media activity, where she posted criticism of Israel’s actions in Gaza and signed open letters advocating for Palestinian rights. Although she had previously participated in pro-Palestine protests, she asserts that she was not present in the U.S. during the April 2024 campus demonstrations at Columbia University. Despite not belonging to any organised student group, her visa revocation signals a tightening stance on student activism.
What happened?
Rubio signed a cable, obtained by multiple news agencies, asking US embassies all over the world to pause new visa interviews for foreign students.
The cable says: “The Department is conducting a review of existing operations and processes for screening and vetting of student and exchange visitor (F, M, J) visa applicants, and based on that review, plans to issue guidance on expanded social media vetting for all such applicants.
“Effective immediately, in preparation for an expansion of required social media screening and vetting, consulate sections should not add any additional student or exchange visitor visa appointment capacity.”
Most international students hold the F-1 student visa. The J-1 visa is granted to students in exchange or scholarship programmes such as the Fulbright fellowship; professors participating in exchange programmes; and interns. The M-1 visa is granted to students participating in training programmes in the US.
A US official told The Associated Press on the condition of anonymity that the halt is temporary and does not apply to students who have already scheduled their visa interviews. It is unclear how long the halt is for.
How many foreign students go to US
During the 2023-2024 academic year, the number of international students in US institutions grew to an all-time high of 1.13 million, according to the annual Open Doors report from the Institute of International Education (IIE) and the US State Department. This number marks a 6.6 percent increase in the number of international students enrolled in US colleges and universities from the year before.
Countries with most students
According to the Open Doors report, 71.5 percent of the international students enrolled in the US between 2023 and 2024 were from Asia.
India was the top source, with 331,602 students from the country enrolled in US universities. Following India was China, which sent 277,398 students to the US. In third place is South Korea, which sent 43,149 students to the US.
Europe sent 90,600 students to the US, making up 8 percent of the international student population.
Top universities with most foreign students
Amid a wider standoff with Harvard, the Trump administration revoked the university’s approval for enrolling international students last week. Harvard currently has 6,800 international students who account for about 27 percent of its student population.
International students make up similar proportions of the campus population at other major universities.
At Yale, Northwestern University and New York University, 22 percent of the student body comes from outside the US. The number is higher at the University of Rochester, where international students constitute 30 percent of the total student body.
According to the Open Doors report, NYU had 27,247 international students between 2023 and 2024, the highest of US universities. Northeastern University was in second place with 21,023 international students and Columbia University came in third with 20,321 students.
…To refuse visas to officials over online ‘censorship’
The United States will refuse visas to foreign officials who block Americans’ social media posts, Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced Wednesday in his latest crackdown.
Rubio — who himself has come under fire for removing US visas from activists who criticize Israel — said he was acting against “flagrant censorship actions” overseas against US tech firms.
He did not publicly name any official who would lose a visa under the new policy. But last week he suggested to lawmakers that he was planning action against Brazilian Supreme Court judge Alexandre de Moraes, who has battled X owner Elon Musk to remove alleged disinformation.
The administration of President Donald Trump – himself a prolific and often confrontational social media user – has also sharply criticized allies Germany and Britain for restricting what the governments term hate speech.
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Rubio said that the United States will begin to restrict visas to foreign nationals who are responsible for censorship of protected expression in the United States.”
“It is unacceptable for foreign officials to issue or threaten arrest warrants on US citizens or US residents for social media posts on American platforms while physically present on US soil,” Rubio said in a statement.
“It is similarly unacceptable for foreign officials to demand that American tech platforms adopt global content moderation policies or engage in censorship activity that reaches beyond their authority and into the United States,” he said.
“We will not tolerate encroachments upon American sovereignty, especially when such encroachments undermine the exercise of our fundamental right to free speech.”
Rubio has said that he has revoked the US visas for thousands of people, largely students who have protested against Israel’s offensive in Gaza.
Among the most visible cases has been Rumeysa Ozturk, a Turkish doctoral student at Tufts University who had written an opinion piece in a student newspaper criticizing the school’s position on Gaza.
Masked agents arrested her on a Massachusetts street and took her away. A judge recently ordered her release.