The State Department has told US embassies and consulates worldwide to begin asking temporary visa applicants two new questions about whether they have suffered harm at home and whether they fear returning there, a step that could sharply raise denial rates for anyone who refuses to answer or answers yes.
The directive, obtained by, requires officers to ask, “Have you experienced harm or mistreatment in your country of nationality or last habitual residence?” and “Do you fear harm or mistreatment in returning to your country of nationality?” Applicants who say yes or decline to respond are likely to face a far higher chance of being denied a visa.
The change reaches across every US embassy and consulate globally and comes as the State Department issued nearly 11m non-immigrant visas in fiscal year 2024. That category includes people traveling on vacation, university students, H-1B tech workers, seasonal farmhands and business executives, making the new screening a broad gatekeeper for ordinary travel as well as work and study.
The cable says the process is meant to cut down on people misrepresenting themselves during the visa process. It says “the high number of aliens claiming asylum in the United States indicates that many aliens misrepresent this intention to consular officers in the visa application process and at US ports of entry,” and adds that information gathered under current guidance is not enough to identify applicants who fear harm or mistreatment if they go home.
That matters because under US law and the 1951 Refugee Convention, the right to seek asylum is not conditioned on how someone entered the country or on what they told a visa officer. Tuesday’s policy instead creates a screening mechanism that can filter out people fleeing persecution before they ever reach US soil, including domestic abuse survivors, journalists who have received death threats and members of a persecuted religious minority.
The stakes are high for applicants who answer falsely to get a visa. Someone who truly fears return but says “no” in order to obtain entry has made a material misrepresentation to a federal officer, a crime that carries a permanent bar from the United States.
The directive cites executive order 14161, signed by Donald Trump on his first day in office in January 2025, when he directed federal agencies to strengthen immigration screening and vetting to keep out people viewed as security threats. A review ordered under that directive led to a White House proclamation in June 2025 suspending entry entirely for nationals of 12 countries and imposing partial restrictions on seven more.
The cable was first reported by The Washington Post, and it lands after a federal appeals court ruled that Trump’s use of an “invasion” claim at the southern border to curb asylum seekers was unlawful. That ruling effectively reopens the United States to migrants fleeing persecution abroad, even as the new visa questions build another barrier long before they reach the border.
The move also fits into a wider tightening of consular screening. In March of last year, the US ordered consular offices to expand screening of student visa applicants, including social media vetting, showing that the new questions are part of a broader effort to use the visa process as an early filter for who gets in and who is turned away.