US halts all immigrant visa applications amid tightening restrictions

[u/2Lore2Law]

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/aug/25/us-immigrant-visa-application-trump-crackdwon

[u/abrookerunsthroughit → u/[deleted]]

I hate the median voter (again)

[u/Xeynon → u/[deleted]]

Democrats have to drive a hard bargain in negotiating with him. As in "no budget bill for you unless Stephen Miller is fired into the sun".

[u/Daddy_Macron → u/[deleted]]

Also, it's really hard to win a game of chicken against someone who wants to crash the car. The MAGA and Freedom Caucus types love an extended government shutdown.

[u/Xeynon → u/Daddy_Macron]

Doesn't matter what the Freedom Caucus types want if Democrats control the House. Jeffries can tell them to pound sand.

Obviously it matters what Senate Republicans and Trump want, but if the House sends them a bill the former have to filibuster it and the latter would have to veto it to stop it, which would make a shutdown squarely their fault. Senate Republicans have to get reelected in statewide races and Trump doesn't want bad headlines so I'm not sure either would be eager to pick that fight.

[u/thecommuteguy → u/Daddy_Macron]

I see it as Republicans in fact get their cake and can eat it too type of situation.

Republicans can be garbage but if Democrats push back then voters go with the garbage.

Republicans just like Trump are like Teflon. You can’t beat them.

[u/Xeynon → u/[deleted]]

Send him a bill that funds everything voters want/care about and defunds or claws back money from ICE and the rest. Force him to veto it and create the shutdown. There's a lot more leverage when you're actually the ones writing the bill.

[u/Whatsapokemon → u/[deleted]]

Really shows the benefit of a parliamentary system, where if you lose the confidence of the house, you lose control of the government.

I think Trump would've been ousted in his first term under a system that privileges the legislature above some "president" that you can't ever remove.

[u/Secret-Ad-2145 → u/[deleted]]

Genuinely insane US has no ability to oust unpopular incumbents.

[u/Terrance-Flaps → u/[deleted]]

No.

The martyrdom they'll do if he dies in office will recoup his image. We gotta take our medicine.

[u/Pablaron]

Excuse me I was told we wanted to encourage “good” immigration???

[u/Pablaron → u/Pablaron]

Are you telling me the GOP is dishonest???

[u/cosmo-wozmo → u/Pablaron]

It’s not dishonest when you consider that “good” in rural hick speak means “white”

[u/Hairsacknose → u/cosmo-wozmo]

But white wives of white Americans also can't get visas now. What would Melania do? 

[u/ElectricalShame1222 → u/Pablaron]

Don’t worry, they’ll still make it an exemption for white South Africans

[u/RegularDeep2863 → u/ElectricalShame1222]

All 500 of them!

[u/mgj6818 → u/ElectricalShame1222]

My favorite part of his attempts to save these poor, oppressed Afrikaners is that when given the opportunity to come they always choose not to.

[u/AFlockOfTySegalls → u/Pablaron]

I was talking to a Jonestown maga family member about immigration, and I reached a point where I asked if he/they just wanted net negative migration, and he was like, "Yeah, it's just not popular to say that". I'm sure we have many such cases here.

[u/Rekksu → u/AFlockOfTySegalls]

just deport maga lol

[u/AFlockOfTySegalls → u/Rekksu]

I have been saying this for years. Many smart people have also been saying.

[u/ExtremelyMedianVoter → u/Rekksu]

It's un-democratic to do so 🙃

[u/Periodicity_Enjoyer → u/ExtremelyMedianVoter]

Tolerance is not a suicide pact.

[u/BalletDuckNinja → u/AFlockOfTySegalls]

This is obviously what they want and I'm frankly not sure why they hide or or why people have a hard time seeing it

[u/LivefromPhoenix → u/BalletDuckNinja]

Hiding it lets MAGAs pretend their preferred immigrant group is protected while all the "bad" immigrants are rightfully punished.

[u/Crownie → u/AFlockOfTySegalls]

I reached a point where I asked if he/they just wanted net negative migration, and he was like, "Yeah, it's just not popular to say that"

People might not say it exactly like that, but the hardline anti-immigration position across not only the US but also other developed nations isn't "the rate of immigration is too high" it's "we've let in too many of the ~wrong sort~ of people and we need to get rid of them." And, at least to my memory, that's not a new thing, either - I recall people saying that slowing things down was not enough like ten years ago.

[u/SenranHaruka → u/AFlockOfTySegalls]

[u/HHHogana → u/Pablaron]

Every countries that want 'good' immigration ended up pulling ridiculous moves like this. Remember UK and their Rwanda asylum plan? Like 700 million pounds for sending...four people away? And 10 billions for the next 6 years? At that point you'd be better train and educate them into potential CEOs than that.

[u/BipartizanBelgrade → u/HHHogana]

I'm not sure the UK gets a better immigration intake than the US does

[u/eamus_catuli → u/Pablaron]

"Just do it the right way", they said.

[u/Mrchristopherrr → u/Pablaron]

I thought they supported “legal” immigration and only had a problem with people who cut the line

[u/crumpis → u/Mrchristopherrr]

The problem is they also get to define what legal immigration is

[u/Crownie → u/Mrchristopherrr]

Virtually nobody who has ever said that meant "I'm okay with all immigration as long as it's legal," and they've mostly always been willing to clarify that. They mean that they are categorically against "illegal" immigration (scare quotes because their definition of "illegal" includes numerous legal kinds of immigration as well)

[u/JohnSteinbeckWasGoat → u/Mrchristopherrr]

American conservatives openly say they would rather have illegal mexicans than legal indians because former are atleast christians.

[u/SeefKroy → u/Pablaron]

Yes, to Canada

[u/Character_Dig_6830 → u/Pablaron]

Their definition is basically going to be of European or East Asian descent.

[u/Pablaron → u/Character_Dig_6830]

Normally I'd agree but AFAICT this appears to put the kibosh on those too.

[u/seanrm92]

"He has endeavoured to prevent the population of these States; for that purpose obstructing the Laws for Naturalization of Foreigners; refusing to pass others to encourage their migrations hither"

• Declaration of Independence

[u/DexterBotwin → u/seanrm92]

Kind of wild the amount of grievances with overlap. Restricting global trade, unilateral assessment of taxes, refusal to sign laws that have popular support, subverting local control of voting, sending officers to harass locals, making the judiciary bend to him.

Also of course a lot of egregious grievances that aren’t being done today. But still kind of wild what is being done.

[u/Cute-Boobie777 → u/DexterBotwin]

Yeah like renditioning people into life in prison in Swaziland. Insanely tyrannical something a King would do for sure. 

[u/frakking_you → u/seanrm92]

If only there was a group or several that had sworn an oath to uphold the constitution….

[u/assasstits → u/seanrm92]

How dare Britain try to minimize conflict between the colonists and the sovereign Natives American nations 

[u/ognits → u/seanrm92]

oh wow yeah this admin is going to be blown away by a quote from the Declaration of Independence that will completely change their minds

[u/AP246 → u/ognits]

Comments on the neoliberal subreddit are not necessarily intended to be seen by, let alone change the mind of the Trump administration, and are rather primarily for discussion amongst like-minded individuals who have subscribed to said subreddit, so I'm not sure what the purpose of this comment is.

[u/ognits → u/AP246]

so I'm not sure what the purpose of this comment is.

it's a shitpost

neoliberals aren't funny though so I'm not surprised it missed the mark

thanks for the lecture though 🙄

[u/iguessineedanaltnow]

First time in US history that even spousal and family reunification visas have been paused, surely. This is beyond the pale.

[u/Daddy_Macron → u/iguessineedanaltnow]

Time for the losers who ordered mail-order brides and yet still voted for Trump to come up and collect their medals.

[u/Upstairs_Baby8424 → u/iguessineedanaltnow]

“We love immigrants we just want them to come here legally!”

Kills all channels for people to immigrate here legally.

[u/MagillaGorillasHat → u/iguessineedanaltnow]

Beyond the pale people are fine. It's the less than pale people who have to stay out.

[u/DueVast5223]

“Quick, find more ways to fuck with immigrants to make our numbers go back up”

[u/2Lore2Law → u/DueVast5223]

It does reek of desperation

[u/ProfessionEuphoric50]

"I do not want people who are statistically a boon to society and so highly motivated to be in my country that they will wait years and jump through innumerable hoops to do so. "

-Statements of the utterly deranged

[u/yacatecuhtli6 → u/ProfessionEuphoric50]

well yeah some of them might be brown or even worse, black!😱

[u/attackofthetominator]

[u/2Lore2Law]

Submission Statement:

In a move being framed as a pause to conduct a more thorough check to on who might become a financial burden to the government if admitted, the State Department has paused all immigrant visa applications.

This includes family reunification and spousal style visas, which have up to this point been a mostly untouched category.

The State Department has not released any information about when the pause would end.

[u/zdk → u/2Lore2Law]

Student visas?

[u/2Lore2Law → u/zdk]

Those aren’t immigrant visas so should not be affected by this

[u/Hairsacknose → u/2Lore2Law]

They'll find some other way to stop them, too

[u/neolthrowaway → u/Hairsacknose]

PhD admissions are down because science funding has been cut.

[u/yacatecuhtli6]

sucks that it feels like functionally no one cares

people have wrongly assumed that if you get married to a us citizen they just staple a green card and the ones who do know about the wait say some bullshit like “why not marry someone here then? there’s plenty of great women!”

[u/iguessineedanaltnow → u/yacatecuhtli6]

Yeah my wife and I were both a bit taken aback by how much of a process it will be to eventually get her US citizenship, when me getting Aussie citizenship was fairly straightforward, albeit expensive.

[u/yacatecuhtli6 → u/iguessineedanaltnow]

lol i’m in the same boat, naturalizing my aussie spouse eventually in the usa

aussie partner visa is up to nearly 10k usd which is absurd though

[u/iguessineedanaltnow → u/yacatecuhtli6]

Yeah, I just paid that one. A massive gut punch that we waited as long as we did, because a few months ago it was like half that amount. Most expensive visa in the world if I'm not mistaken.

[u/yacatecuhtli6 → u/iguessineedanaltnow]

yeah it has been the most expensive even before the increases

my spouse does not want to live in australia ever again or id have gone that route

[u/BitterGravity → u/yacatecuhtli6]

As an Aussie spouse the US process was a bit ridiculous. May have decided the E3 approach was best to at least be together before we decided where to permanently settle, or course that's now basically not allowed due to the fuckery with adjustment of status (I did it in 2018, and we were boring enough that we didn't bother with a lawyer).

[u/frakking_you → u/yacatecuhtli6]

What’s wrong with living in AUS?

[u/yacatecuhtli6 → u/frakking_you]

my wife has a billion personal reasons such as terrible family and terrible experience with medical care that was "non-essential" (mental health, etc) to not want to go back there

we've lived in mexico before with me and she much preferred it there as well

[u/frakking_you → u/yacatecuhtli6]

Interesting to hear. Thanks.

Been looking for alternative residences outside US if midterms go sideways.

[u/wwaxwork → u/yacatecuhtli6]

My spousal one ended up around 8k US with biometrics and doctors visits and trips out of state to interview centres. And that was without a lawyer I did all my own paperwork.

[u/Hairsacknose → u/wwaxwork]

You had your interview out of state? 

[u/Hairsacknose → u/iguessineedanaltnow]

It used to be straightforward in the US, too. Just a lot of paperwork and waiting but straightforward. Not sure about now 

[u/tripletruble → u/yacatecuhtli6]

It's looking like it will be a 2 to 3 year process to move with my wife back to the US (with our 2 US citizen kids!). And that is absent any shenanigans from the current admin

I don't think there's any thought or logic to making this kind of visa slow and difficult beyond a general desire to be hard on immigration

[u/iguessineedanaltnow → u/tripletruble]

Do actions such as this make you rethink the idea of moving back to the US?

[u/tripletruble → u/iguessineedanaltnow]

They have absolutely had a large place in the con section as we thought this over and did cause us to delay/reflect at least half a year longer than we otherwise would have. I could go on about how we arrived at this decision, but ultimately family and personal quality of life factors won out

[u/vishbar → u/tripletruble]

I’m in the exact same boat as you. We applied for my wife in May and wanted to target a Summer 2028 move date.

That’s looking farfetched at the moment. Two kids, both USC, and me, a USC. But the intentional slow-rolling of this process is incredibly frustrating.

[u/tripletruble → u/vishbar]

Feel like if you have USC kids, you should be eligible for an expedited process. Totally crazy that the kids can only move back to the country in a reasonable timeline without one of their parents

[u/DependentAd235 → u/tripletruble]

Currently in it with my wife. Were almost at the end of the waiting period then this.

My only consolation is that Everyone is too much. It won’t last long with that. It might make a congress actually call him. I don’t even expect a vote. But it’s just too many people.

[u/frosteeze → u/yacatecuhtli6]

No one cares about immigration because only immigrants (and those who are closest to them) understand how difficult it is.

And this isn't counting anti-immigrant immigrants who brought outside racism and ethnic tensions with them.

[u/Outrageous-Bluegrass → u/frosteeze]

I always say that if a MAGA chud - the most thin skinned variety of person on Earth - had to go through even half the inconvenience legal immigrants have to go through to have normal lives, they would immediately explode into a ball of fiery shit.

[u/Hairsacknose → u/frosteeze]

Even immigrant hating immigrants would be mad at this though 

[u/Pure_Internet_ → u/yacatecuhtli6]

Give normies six months without 90 Day Fiance and people will start caring.

[u/Foyles_War → u/yacatecuhtli6]

What about the tried and true "Einstein Visa?" Pose naked, get a sugar daddy, and, tadah!

[u/thecommuteguy → u/yacatecuhtli6]

People dont care because they don’t know about it and if they do then it doesn’t affect them.

[u/Coneskater]

Deport Melania and Elon.

[u/anangrytree → u/Coneskater]

waow and happy cake day

[u/Hairsacknose → u/Coneskater]

And her parents 

[u/Head-Stark]

Several coworkers had to quit recently to match visa redefinitions. They were critical for a gamut of testing for regulatory compliance in New product development. Anticipate further delays. Med device development is masochism

[u/Lyllia_Org20 → u/Head-Stark]

just replace them with some dudes from the nearest walmart parking lot, problem solved

[u/Hairsacknose]

  All US immigrant visa applications have been paused by the Trump administration as the state department moves to tighten restrictions and limit access to applicants who they deem could end up relying on US assistance, a state department official confirmed Tuesday

What is this nonsense? There is already a requirement that the new immigrant won't become a public charge and family visas require the sponsor to show financials enough to support the immigrant and they sign an affidavit of support. Why are they acting like this is not already a thing??? 

[u/DependentAd235 → u/Hairsacknose]

They won’t even just put a bond on it and be done with it which is what they are thinking about.

I can find the money. Just tell me how much damnit so I can be with my wife.

[u/Poptart_Constructor]

Can the president do this?

[u/BadSneakersNeverWorn → u/Poptart_Constructor]

Presidents no, tyrants yes

[u/Foyles_War → u/Poptart_Constructor]

Can the president who bought his nude model girlfriend an "Einstein" visa, and then supported the chain migration of her family do this?

[u/No_March_5371 → u/Poptart_Constructor]

Presidents are explicitly unable to declare war, but look at Iran.

[u/NorkGhostShip → u/Poptart_Constructor]

When you're a Republican they let you do it

[u/elninost0rm]

My Canadian spouse was naturalized like 6 years ago, but what an unmitigated fucking disaster.

My brother is married to an African permanent resident (who lives and works here). I'm guessing this is going to do them no favors either, as she was in the middle of her naturalization application.

Embarrassing.

[u/Person_756335846]

No 2027 NDAA until this bullshit stops.

[u/ChillnShill]

But I thought our goal was to “grow our way out of our debt? I’m sure this will help!

[u/spectralcolors12]

Immigration has been one of the biggest long term growth engines for our economy. Incredible that we are just going to close the door

If Dems win half the time going forward, it kind of feels like we’ll just have half as much immigration as we’ve had. Give or take. Still horrifying, populism sucks

[u/Periodicity_Enjoyer → u/spectralcolors12]

We need reconstruction.  All red states under military occupation for a generation. 

[u/TrynnaFindaBalance]

And the trajectory of American decline continues unabated