The United States is preparing to revoke the visas of as many as 200,000 foreign nationals who entered the country on business or tourist visas before seeking asylum, in what could become the largest mass visa cancellation in the nation’s history.
The planned action is part of the Trump administration’s broader effort to tighten immigration enforcement and increase scrutiny of people seeking to remain in the United States.
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The State Department is expected to begin notifying affected individuals in the coming weeks. The review is focused primarily on holders of B1 business and B2 tourist visas who entered the US between 2016 and 2026 and subsequently filed asylum applications.
Officials say the measure is intended to prevent the visitor visa system from being used as a route to permanent residence through asylum claims. State Department officials have argued that individuals who enter the country temporarily should not use the visa process to circumvent established immigration channels.
However, having a visa revoked does not automatically mean that an individual will be immediately removed from the United States. People with pending asylum applications may continue with those cases, although the loss of their visa could affect their immigration status and ability to remain lawfully in the country.
The proposed cancellations come as the administration has significantly expanded its review of existing visas. The State Department has already revoked hundreds of thousands of visas for reasons including criminal activity, immigration violations and other conduct officials say makes individuals ineligible to remain in the United States.
The latest initiative is expected to attract considerable attention because of its unprecedented scale. Immigration advocates are likely to challenge the policy, particularly over concerns about how the government will determine which asylum applicants should have their visas revoked and what protections will be available to those affected.
The administration, meanwhile, maintains that stronger visa enforcement is necessary to protect the integrity of the US immigration system.
If implemented at the projected scale, the action would represent a dramatic escalation in the government’s use of visa revocation as an immigration enforcement tool and could affect tens of thousands of people who initially entered the United States legally as visitors.
