Washington plans to pull 200,000 visitor visas, and no host company can screen for it
State is expected to revoke B1 and B2 visas issued since 2016 to holders who later sought asylum. The disqualifying act happens after the trip is booked, and officials will not name a date.
The Investor · Invest desk
What happened
- State Department documents obtained by the AP show it is expected to revoke B1 and B2 visas issued between 2016 and 2026 to holders who have sought asylum.
- Up to 200,000 people would be covered, which would be the largest single mass visa revocation in US history and is expected to draw legal challenges.
- The action would be carried out with the Department of Homeland Security.
- Officials say most holders with pending asylum cases would be recategorized and lose visitor status rather than face immediate deportation.
Why it matters
- Who's exposed exposure The disqualifying act is a filing the traveler made after the visa was issued, so a company inviting a supplier's engineer or a client's trainer has no way to diligence the risk it is funding.
- What it costs cost With revocations described as dynamic and rolling, prepaid flights, booked factory time and conference slots carry a non-arrival probability nobody can quote, and the host firm eats it.
- Who has to decide decision Anything currently run on a business visitor visa now has to be defended in planning: keep it in the US and accept document risk, or hold the meeting somewhere the document is not the dependency.
- What doesn't add up contradiction The 200,000 figure comes from documents rather than the podium, State's spokesman will not own any number, and the material never establishes how many holders actually filed for asylum.
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Put the figure against the administration's own recent baseline. State revoked about 175,000 visas over the past 18 months, covering people convicted or accused of crimes and people who spoke publicly against US policies [11]. A single action against up to 200,000 visitor visas would be roughly 14 percent larger than that entire 18-month run [15], and it reaches back across ten years of issuance, an average of about 20,000 visas for each year covered [16].
The mechanism matters more than the total. A B1 is issued for a business trip, a B2 for tourism, family visits or medical care [9]. What disqualifies the holder in this plan is an asylum application filed after the visa was granted [2], which is not something a sponsoring company ever sees. The information moves the other way: State began screening current holders after receiving asylum-request data from the Citizenship and Immigration Service [12].
A forward-looking version of the same test already exists. B1 and B2 applicants are asked to affirm that they will not apply for asylum and to show that they intend to return home [10]. The plan applies that standard backwards, to documents issued as far back as 2016 [2]. Deputy Secretary of State Christopher Landau, making the case on X on Monday, wrote that people "are fed up with bogus asylum claims" and pointed to a Colombian who arrived on a tourist visa in 2015 and then applied [13]. That arrival predates the earliest visa the documents cover [17].
For an employer, the operative question is which side of the border a traveler is on when the notice lands. The officials describe the consequence only for people with pending cases inside the country: recategorized, no longer business or tourism travelers, not deported straight away [6]. What happens to a holder who is abroad with a revoked document and a filing in the system is not addressed in the material.
Courts have already rejected this administration's attempts to end birthright citizenship, including at the Supreme Court [14], and the revocation plan is expected to draw challenges too [1]. That is thin comfort for anyone budgeting inbound travel, because a policy can bind for months before a judge reaches it, and the constraints stacked on applicants so far, social media disclosure, expensive processing bonds and outright bans on certain nationalities, arrived the same way [8].
What to watch
- Whether State publishes revocation criteria and a notification channel, or holders and their hosts find out case by case.
- Whether a court reaches the plan before the first tranche of revocations is issued.
- Whether the USCIS-to-State asylum data screen is extended past B1 and B2 to other nonimmigrant categories.
Information, not investment advice. This story is general information about companies and markets, drawn from cited reporting. It is not a recommendation to buy, sell or hold any security; check the cited sources before acting.
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- [1]
The administration is preparing to revoke the business and tourism visas of up to 200,000 foreigners who have applied for or are currently seeking asylum; the move would be the largest single mass revocation of visas in US history and would likely face legal challenges.
- [2]
Unless challenged or revised, the State Department is expected to announce in the coming weeks the revocation of B1 and B2 visas issued between 2016 and 2026 whose holders have sought asylum or are now seeking asylum, according to State Department documents obtained by The Associated Press and two US officials.
- [3]
The action will be taken in coordination with the Department of Homeland Security.
- [4]
State Department spokesman Tommy Pigott said: "We are coordinating with DHS to identify and revoke the nonimmigrant visas of foreigners who have come to the United States claiming to be short-term visitors, but then file for asylum to stay here permanently."
- [5]
Pigott declined to comment on the number of visas that might be revoked, saying "as the process will be ongoing, the number of revocations remains dynamic and will be done on a rolling basis."
- [6]
The revocations would not necessarily result in immediate deportation; most of those with asylum cases currently pending would be recategorized but would lose their status as business or tourism travelers, according to officials who spoke on condition of anonymity because the revocations are not final.
- [7]
It was not immediately clear from the documents or the officials how many B1 and B2 visa holders are seeking or have sought asylum and would be affected by the revocations.
- [8]
Since Trump took office for his second term, the administration has ramped up restrictions on visa applicants: demanding more information about social media histories, requiring the posting of expensive bonds for visa processing, and outright banning issuance of visas to citizens of certain countries.
- [9]
B1 visas are generally issued for business trips and B2 visas are generally issued for tourism, family visits or medical care.
- [10]
Current applicants for B1 and B2 visas are asked to affirm that they will not apply for asylum in the United States and to prove that they intend to return to their home countries.
- [11]
In the past 18 months the State Department has revoked about 175,000 visas for people convicted or accused of crimes ranging from drunken driving to rape and robbery, as well as for people who have spoken out publicly against US policies, particularly in the Middle East.
- [12]
State Department documents obtained by the AP suggest screening of current B1 and B2 visa holders began after the State Department received information about asylum requests from the Citizen and Immigration Service.
- [13]
In a social media post on Monday, Deputy Secretary of State Christopher Landau wrote on X that "People in the US and all over the world are fed up with bogus asylum claims" and that "Asylum isn't supposed to be a loophole to circumvent immigration law," citing the case of a Colombian citizen who came to the US in 2015 on a tourist visa and then applied for asylum.
- [14]
Trump has tried several times to end birthright citizenship, but those challenges have been rejected by courts, including the Supreme Court.
- [15]
Up to 200,000 revocations in a single action would be about 14 percent larger than the roughly 175,000 visas State revoked across all categories in the past 18 months.
- [16]
The 2016-2026 issuance window spans ten years, so up to 200,000 revocations averages about 20,000 visas for each issuance year covered if spread evenly.
- [17]
The 2015 tourist-visa arrival cited by Landau falls outside the 2016-2026 issuance window described in the State Department documents.
Sources
2 independent publishers whose own reporting we read for this story.
- fortune.comU.S. prepares largest mass visa revocation in history, targeting up to 200,000 foreigners who are seeking asylum
1 article · August 24, 2026
- scmp.comUS set for largest mass visa revocation, targeting up to 200,000 foreigners
1 article · August 24, 2026
- semafor.comUS prepares new immigration crackdown
1 article · August 25, 2026
Topics and entities
Topics
- Asylum in the United States