The US State Department has said it is pausing all visa processing for 75 countries in an effort to crack down on applicants deemed likely to become a public charge or persons considered to rely primarily on public assistance for their living expenses.
A State Department memo, seen first by Fox News Digital, directed consular officers to refuse visas under existing law while the department reassesses screening and vetting procedures.
The countries include Nigeria, Somalia, Russia, Afghanistan, Brazil, Iran, Iraq, Egypt, Thailand, Yemen and many others. The pause will begin January 21 and will continue indefinitely until the department conducts a reassessment of visa processing.
In November 2025, a State Department cable sent to posts around the globe instructed consular officers to enforce sweeping new screening rules under the so-called “public charge” provision of immigration law.
The guidance instructed consular officers to deny visas to applicants deemed likely to rely on public benefits, weighing a wide range of factors including health, age, English proficiency, finances and even potential need for long-term medical care.
Older or overweight applicants could be denied, along with those who had any past use of government cash assistance or institutionalisation, it stated.
“The State Department will use its long-standing authority to deem ineligible potential immigrants who would become a public charge on the United States and exploit the generosity of the American people,” State Department spokesperson Tommy Piggott said in a statement.
“Immigration from these 75 countries will be paused while the State Department reassess immigration processing procedures to prevent the entry of foreign nationals who would take welfare and public benefits,” Piggott added.
While the public charge provision has existed for decades, enforcement has varied widely across administrations, with consular officers historically given broad discretion in applying the standard.
Exceptions to the new pause will be “very limited” and only allowed after an applicant has cleared public charge considerations.
A 2022 version of the public charge rule under the Joe Biden administration had limited the scope of benefits considered — primarily to cash assistance and long-term institutional care — excluding programmes like the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Programme, the federal supplemental nutrition programme for women, infants and children, known as WIC, Medicaid or housing vouchers.
The Immigration and Nationality Act has long permitted consular officers to deem applicants inadmissible on public charge grounds, but President Donald Trump in 2019 expanded the definition to include a broader range of public benefits.
That expansion was challenged in court, with portions ultimately blocked before being rescinded by the Biden administration.
Meanwhile, the House Oversight Committee will seek to hold former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in contempt of Congress after she did not appear for a scheduled deposition as part of the Republican-led panel’s investigation into Jeffrey Epstein, committee Chairman James Comer announced Wednesday.
The move comes a day after Comer said the committee would seek to hold former President Bill Clinton in contempt for failing to appear for his scheduled deposition on Tuesday, NBC News reported.
“We’re going to hold both Clintons in criminal contempt of Congress,” Comer told reporters Wednesday morning. The Oversight Committee will vote on both contempt measures next Wednesday and then go bring them to the House floor,” he said.
The committee had negotiated in good faith with the Clintons’ attorneys for five months, Comer said. “We have bent over backwards,” he said.
The committee subpoenaed the Clintons last year. They were scheduled to appear in October, but that was later pushed to December because of their attendance at a funeral. Comer said the Clintons’ lawyer did not provide alternative dates, so he rescheduled their depositions for mid-January.
In a letter to Comer on Tuesday, the Clintons argued that the subpoenas were “legally invalid” and said they did not plan to appear for depositions. The letter cited legal analysis prepared by two law firms, which they said they provided to the committee Monday.
“Every person has to decide when they have seen or had enough and are ready to fight for this country, its principles and its people, no matter the consequences,” the Clintons wrote. “For us, now is that time.”
The letter also said the Clintons expected the committee to vote to hold them in contempt, saying that “you will say it is not our decision to make. But we have made it. Now you have to make yours.”
The Clintons’ lawyers, Ashley Callen and David E. Kendall, wrote in a separate letter to Comer on Monday that the subpoenas were “invalid and legally unenforceable” because they are “untethered to a valid legislative purpose, unwarranted because they do not seek pertinent information, and an unprecedented infringement on the separation of powers.”
Hillary Clinton’s spokesperson Nick Merrill questioned the committee’s approach in a statement last month, saying, “Since this started, we’ve been asking what the hell Hillary Clinton has to do with this, and he hasn’t been able to come up with an answer.”
Hillary Clinton has not been accused of any wrongdoing related to Epstein, and her name has not appeared in the thousands of files the Justice Department has released so far after the Epstein Files Transparency Act passed.
The first set of files, released last month, included numerous pictures of Bill Clinton, who is also not accused of any wrongdoing. Clinton has said he cut ties with Epstein, the late sex offender, before Epstein was accused of having sex with a minor in 2006.
The Justice Department said in a court filing last week that more than 2 million Epstein files have yet to be released. The statutory deadline to release all of the files was December 19.
