News

— updated September 22, 2025 —

On Friday, September 19, 2025, the Trump administration issued a Presidential Proclamation titled "Restriction on Entry of Certain Nonimmigrant Workers," affecting individuals in H-1B status. This Proclamation will take effect at 12:01 a.m. Eastern time on Sunday, September 21, 2025.

The Proclamation imposes several restrictions, including on:

On Saturday, September 6, 2025, then again on October 10, 2025, the Department of State (DOS) issued an announcement, effective immediately, directing nonimmigrant applicants to schedule their visa appointment at a consular post in their country of citizenship or residence.

On July 25, 2025, the Department of State announced that, effective September 2, 2025, all applicants for a nonimmigrant visa, regardless of their age, will generally need to attend an in-person interview with a consular officer. Visa interview waivers will remain available in limited circumstances, as described in the Department of State announcement. 

On June 4, 2025, President Trump issued a Presidential Proclamation titled: Restricting the Entry of Foreign Nationals to Protect the United States from Foreign Terrorists and Other National Security and Public Safety Threats.

In an effort to increase its screening and vetting of individual beneficiaries, USCIS may request that a beneficiary of a pending H-1B petition appear for a "biometrics" appointment at a designated USCIS Application Support Center for the collection of a digital picture, signature and fingerprints.

On January 29, 2025, Executive Action 13899, entitled “Additional Measures to Combat Anti-Semitism”, was signed by the President of the United States. The executive action specifically mentions “alien students or staff”. “Alien”, a term that has been recently re-introduced, refers to anyone who is not a citizen or a national of the United States.

At this point, there are no specific travel restrictions for green card holders at U-M to be aware of, though they may be implemented in the future.**  As you can imagine, we're following the developments in this area quite closely and we appreciate the anxiety felt by Legal Permanent Residents who are considering traveling abroad.

On 4/5/2025, the U.S. Department of State announced it revoked all visas held by South Sudanese passport holders and would not issue visas to South Sudanese passport holders. 

Read the full press statement "Defending America’s Security through Visa and Travel Restrictions on South Sudan" on the U.S. Department of State website.