visa

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas’s office has urged the United States to reverse a decision to revoke the Palestinian leader’s visa, just weeks before he was set to attend the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) in New York.

The Palestinian presidency expressed “astonishment” at Washington’s decision on Friday to rescind the visas for Abbas and 80 other Palestinian officials before next month’s high-level meetings at UN headquarters.

Abbas has addressed the General Assembly for many years and generally leads the Palestinian delegation.

“We call upon the American administration to reverse its decision,” Abbas’s spokesperson spokesperson Nabil Abu Rudeineh told The Associated Press on Saturday, warning that the move “will only increase tension and escalation”.

“We have been in contact since yesterday with Arab and foreign countries, especially those directly concerned with this issue. This effort will continue around the clock,” Abu Rudeineh said.

The spokesperson also urged other countries to put pressure on US President Donald Trump’s administration to reverse its decision, including most notably those that have organised a high-level conference about reviving the two-state solution.

Set for September 22, the conference is being co-hosted by France and Saudi Arabia.

‘Ideologically driven’

The Trump administration’s visa curbs come amid growing condemnation of Israel’s devastating war on Palestinians in the Gaza Strip and a wave of Israeli settler and military violence in the occupied West Bank.

The deadly attacks have prompted a growing number of countries to announce plans to recognise an independent Palestinian state at the UN in September.

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio justified the revocations on Friday by accusing the Palestinian Authority (PA) and the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) of “not complying with their commitments” and “undermining the prospects for peace”.

Rubio also accused the PA of taking part in “lawfare campaigns”, including appeals to the International Court of Justice and the International Criminal Court to hold Israeli accountable for abuses in Gaza and the occupied West Bank.

But Matt Duss, executive vice president at the Center for International Policy, a US-based think tank, accused the Trump administration is “clearly violating diplomatic protocol” in its decision to revoke the visas.

As a host state, the US is meant to grant visas to UN member-state representatives and officials to visit the international body’s headquarters in New York City.

“What’s going on here is clearly ideologically driven,” Duss told Al Jazeera.

“There are people inside the Trump administration who are working closely with the right-wing Israeli government and their goal is to simply remove the Palestinian liberation movement from the international agenda,” he said.

“They do not recognise the Palestinian peoples’ right to state, and they’re both trying to prevent that on the ground in Palestine and now they’re trying to remove them from the international agenda in New York.”

European criticism

Meanwhile, the European Union’s foreign policy chief said the bloc is calling on Washington to reconsider its visa denials.

“In the light of the existing agreements between the UN and its host state, we all urge for this decision to be reconsidered,” Kaja Kallas said on Saturday following a meeting of EU foreign ministers in Copenhagen.

French Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot also said the General Assembly “cannot suffer any restrictions on access”.

“The United Nations headquarters is a place of neutrality, a sanctuary dedicated to peace, where conflicts are resolved,” Barrot said.

Meanwhile, Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez said he spoke with Abbas on Saturday to express his “firm support” after the “unjust” visa revocations.

“Palestine has the right to make its voice heard at the United Nations and in all international forums,” Sanchez wrote in a post on social media.

WASHINGTON — Secretary of State Marco Rubio has revoked the visas of a number of Palestinian Authority and Palestine Liberation Organization officials ahead of next month’s annual high-level meeting of the U.N. General Assembly, where the groups previously have been represented.

The State Department said in a statement Friday that Rubio also had ordered some new visa applications from Palestinian officials be denied.

The move is the latest in a series of steps the Trump administration has taken to target Palestinians with visa restrictions and comes as the Israeli military declared Gaza’s largest city a combat zone. The State Department also suspended a program that had allowed injured Palestinian children from Gaza to come to the U.S. for medical treatment after a social media outcry by some conservatives.

The State Department didn’t specify how many visas had been revoked or how many applications had been denied. The department did not immediately respond to a request for more specifics.

It wasn’t immediately clear if Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas would be affected.

The agency’s statement did say that representatives assigned to the Palestinian Authority mission at the United Nations would be granted waivers under the U.S. host country agreement with the U.N. so they can continue their New York-based operations.

“It is in our national security interests to hold the PLO and PA accountable for not complying with their commitments, and for undermining the prospects for peace,” the statement said. “Before the PLO and PA can be considered partners for peace, they must consistently repudiate terrorism — including the October 7 massacre — and end incitement to terrorism in education, as required by U.S. law and as promised by the PLO.”

The Palestinian ambassador to the U.N., Riyad Mansour, told reporters Friday that he had just learned of Rubio’s decision and was assessing its impact.

“We will see exactly what it means and how it applies to any of our delegation, and we will respond accordingly,” he said.

Mansour said Abbas was leading the delegation to next month’s U.N. meetings and was expected to address the General Assembly — as he has done for many years. He also was expected to attend a high-level meeting co-chaired by France and Saudi Arabia on Sept. 22 about a two-state solution, which calls for Israel living side by side with an independent Palestine.

Lee writes for the Associated Press. AP writer Edith M. Lederer at the United Nations contributed to this report.

It’s important to make sure you know your passport is in mint condition before travelling as many people don’t realise they could be permitted from entering the country

When going on holiday there are a few important things to remember such as your passport and visa – but few people know one mistake that could stop them from entering a country.

Many people check their passport expiry date before travelling, making sure it’s got enough time on it before it runs out, but most people don’t realise the condition of their passport can be just as important.

According to Experience Travel Group passports with worn corners, tears, water damage or even loose pages can result in refusal of entry even if your passport is still valid and your visa approved.

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The experts say your passport isn’t just a form of identification, it’s a legal travel document and border officials are trained to look for signs of damage, tampering, or wear and tear that could make a passport unreadable or raise doubts about its authenticity.

“What many travellers don’t realise is that immigration officers have the final say at the border. Even with a valid visa and an in-date passport, an officer can still refuse you entry if they believe the document is damaged. Airlines also carry out checks before boarding and can deny travel altogether if they suspect your passport will be rejected on arrival,” they explained.

This means a damaged passport can therefore be just as harmful as an expired one and even minor flaws such as smudges, bent corners or faded pages can derail your journey.

There are some countries which are stricter than others. These include:

• Indonesia: Travellers have been turned away at the border over tears as small as a centimetre. Even with a valid visa, any damage to the passport can lead to immediate deportation or refusal of entry. In some cases, passengers were denied boarding at their departure airport when airline staff spotted minor damage.
• Thailand and Vietnam: These countries have also denied entry to passengers whose passports appeared dirty, water stained or had peeling laminate. Border officers treat any visible damage to the photo page especially seriously, as it can interfere with identity checks. Travellers have been put on the next flight home in such cases.
• United States: US border officers rely heavily on biometric scanning and machine-readable zones. If the passport chip cannot be read, or if the data page is scratched, smudged, or water damaged, the document may be deemed invalid. Even if the chip works, visible physical damage may be treated as suspicious and raise concerns about tampering.
• Australia: Travellers are advised not to attempt travel with a significantly damaged passport, including torn or missing pages, or visible damage to the cover or spine. Airlines flying to any destination may deny boarding if they believe the passport could be rejected on arrival, to avoid complications or penalties.
• United Arab Emirates: The UAE has some of the most rigorous border checks in the world. Passports with loose binding, detached pages or deep creases are often refused. Travellers have reported being stopped from boarding in their departure country when airlines identified likely issues for UAE immigration.
• Airline checks: Airlines act as the first line of defence, as they face penalties for carrying passengers with unacceptable documents. As a result, even minor tears or stains have led to boarding refusals. Travellers have been denied flights because of small rips, coffee stains or faint watermarks on their passports.

It may seem extreme, but passports contain advanced security features, including chips, holograms and machine-readable codes so damage to these elements can make it difficult for scanners to confirm the document’s authenticity. Border officers also look out for tampering and forgery and a tear, water spills or a separated spine could suggest that the passport has been altered.

Even if the damage is innocent, officials are unlikely to take the risk particularly in countries with strict immigration controls. According to Experience Travel Group: “Travel should be about discovery and relaxation, not unexpected setbacks at the border. By taking just a few minutes to check the condition of your passport before departure, you can avoid a ruined trip. It’s a small precaution that makes a huge difference.”

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WASHINGTON — A day after conservative activist Laura Loomer, an advisor to President Trump, posted videos on social media of children from Gaza arriving in the U.S. for medical treatment and questioning how they got visas, the State Department said it was halting all visitor visas for people from Gaza pending a review.

The State Department said Saturday the visas would be stopped while it looks into how “a small number of temporary medical-humanitarian visas” were issued in recent days. Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Sunday told “Face the Nation” on CBS that the action came after ”outreach from multiple congressional offices asking questions about it.”

Rubio said that there were “just a small number” of the visas issued to children in need of medical aid but that they were accompanied by adults. The congressional offices reached out with evidence that “some of the organizations bragging about and involved in acquiring these visas have strong links to terrorist groups like Hamas,” he asserted, without providing evidence or naming those organizations.

As a result, he said, “we are going to pause this program and reevaluate how those visas are being vetted and what relationship, if any, has there been by these organizations to the process of acquiring those visas.”

Loomer on Friday posted videos on X of children from Gaza arriving this month in San Francisco and Houston for medical treatment with the aid of an organization called Heal Palestine. “Despite the US saying we are not accepting Palestinian ‘refugees’ into the United States under the Trump administration,” these people from Gaza were able to travel to the U.S., she said.

She called it a “national security threat” and asked who signed off on the visas, calling for the person to be fired. She tagged Rubio, Trump, Vice President JD Vance, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott and California Gov. Gavin Newsom.

Trump has downplayed Loomer’s influence on his administration, but several officials swiftly left or were removed shortly after she publicly criticized them.

The State Department on Sunday declined to comment on how many of the visas had been granted and whether the decision to halt visas to people from Gaza had anything to do with Loomer’s posts.

Heal Palestine said in a statement Sunday that it was “distressed” by the State Department decision to stop halt visitor visas from Gaza. The group said it is “an American humanitarian nonprofit organization delivering urgent aid and medical care to children in Palestine.”

A post on the organization’s Facebook page Thursday shows a photo of a boy from the Gaza Strip leaving Egypt and headed to St. Louis for treatment and said he is “our 15th evacuated child arriving in the U.S. in the last two weeks.”

The organization brings “severely injured children” to the U.S. on temporary visas for treatment they can’t get at home, the statement said. After treatment, the children and any family members who accompanied them return to the Middle East, the statement said.

“This is a medical treatment program, not a refugee resettlement program,” it said.

The World Health Organization has repeatedly called for more medical evacuations from Gaza, where Israel’s 22-month war against Hamas has heavily destroyed or damaged much of the territory’s health system.

“More than 14,800 patients still need lifesaving medical care that is not available in Gaza,” WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said Wednesday on social media, and called on more countries to offer support.

A WHO description of the medical evacuation process from Gaza published last year explained that the organization submits lists of patients to Israeli authorities for security clearance. It noted that before the war in Gaza began, 50 to 100 patients were leaving the territory daily for medical treatment, and it called for a higher rate of approvals from Israeli authorities.

The United Nations and partners say medicines and basic healthcare supplies are low in Gaza after Israel cut off all aid to the territory of over 2 million people for more than 10 weeks earlier this year.

“Ceasefire! Peace is the best medicine,” Tedros added Wednesday.

José Antonio Rodríguez held a bouquet of flowers in his trembling hands.

It had been nearly a quarter of a century since he had left his family behind in Mexico to seek work in California. In all those years, he hadn’t seen his parents once.

They kept in touch as best they could, but letters took months to cross the border, and his father never was one for phone calls. Visits were impossible: José was undocumented, and his parents lacked visas to come to the U.S.

Now, after years of separation, they were about to be reunited. And José’s stomach was in knots.

He had been a young man of 20 when he left home, skinny and full of ambition. Now he was 44, thicker around the middle, his hair thinning at the temples.

Would his parents recognize him? Would he recognize them? What would they think of his life?

José had spent weeks preparing for this moment, cleaning his trailer in the Inland Empire from top to bottom and clearing the weeds from his yard. He bought new pillows to set on his bed, which he would give to his parents, taking the couch.

Finally, the moment was almost here.

Gerardo Villarreal Salazar, 70, left, is reunited with his grandson Alejandro Rojas, 17.

Leobardo Arellano, 39, left, and his father, José Manuel Arellano Cardona, 70, are reunited after 24 years.

Officials in Mexico’s Zacatecas state had helped his mother and father apply for documents that allow Mexican citizens to enter the U.S. for temporary visits as part of a novel program that brings elderly parents of undocumented workers to the United States. Many others had their visa applications rejected, but theirs were approved.

They had packed their suitcases to the brim with local sweets and traveled 24 hours by bus along with four other parents of U.S. immigrants. Any minute now, they would be pulling up at the East Los Angeles event hall where José waited along with other immigrants who hadn’t seen their families in decades.

José, who wore a gray polo shirt and new jeans, thought about all the time that had passed. The lonely nights during Christmas season, when he longed for the taste of his mother’s cooking. All the times he could have used his father’s advice.

His plan had been to stay in the U.S. a few years, save up some money and return home to begin his life.

But life doesn’t wait. Before he knew it, decades had passed and José had built community and a career in carpentry in California.

Juan Mascorro sings for the reunited families.

He sent tens of thousands of dollars to Mexico: to fund improvements on his parents’ house, to buy machines for the family butcher shop. He sent his contractor brother money to build a two-bedroom house where José hopes to retire one day.

His mother, who likes talking on the phone, kept him informed on all the doings in town. The construction of a new bridge. The marriages, births, deaths and divorces. The creep of violence as drug cartels brought their wars to Zacatecas.

And then one day, a near-tragedy. José’s father, jovial, strong, always cracking jokes, landed in the hospital with a heart that doctors said was failing. He languished there six months on the brink of death.

But he lived. And when he got out, he declared that he wanted to see his eldest son.

A framed artwork depicting the states of California and Zacatecas is a gift for families being reunited.

A full third of people born in Zacatecas live in the U.S. Migration is so common, the state has an agency tasked with attending to the needs of Zacatecanos living abroad. It has been helping elderly Mexicans get visas to visit family north of the border for years.

The state tried to get some 25 people visas this year. But the United States, now led by a president who has vilified immigrants, approved only six.

José had a childhood friend, Horacio Zapata, who also migrated to the U.S. and who hasn’t seen his father in 30 years. Horacio’s father also applied for a visa, but he didn’t make the cut.

Horacio was crestfallen. A few years back, his mother died in Mexico. He had spent his life working to help get her out of poverty, and then never had a chance to say goodbye. He often thought about what he would give to share one last hug with her. Everything. He would give everything.

He and his wife had come with José to offer moral support. He put his arm around his friend, whose voice shook with nerves.

Horacio Zapata, 48, hoped his father would be able to come to Los Angeles through the reunion program, but his visa request was denied.

East L.A. was normally bustling, filled with vendors hawking fruit, flowers and tacos. But on this hot August afternoon, as a car pulled up outside the event hall to deposit José’s parents and the other elderly travelers, the streets were eerily quiet.

Since federal agents had descended on California, apprehending gardeners, day laborers and car wash workers en masse, residents in immigrant-heavy pockets like this one had mostly stayed inside.

The thought crossed José’s mind: What if immigration agents raided the reunion event? But there was no way he was going to miss it.

Suddenly, the director of the Federation of Zacatecas Hometown Assns. of Southern California, which was hosting the reunion, asked José to rise. Slowly, his parents walked in.

Of course they recognized one another. His first thought: How small they both seemed.

José Antonio Rodríguez and his mother, Juana Contreras Sánchez, wipe tears from their eyes after being reunited.

José gathered his mother in an embrace. He handed her the flowers. And then he gripped his father tightly.

This is a miracle, his father whispered. He’d asked the Virgin for this.

His father, whose heart condition persists, was fatigued from the long journey. They all took seats. His father put his head down on the table and sobbed. José stared at the ground, sniffling, pulling up his shirt to wipe away tears.

A mariachi singer performed a few songs, too loudly. Plates of food appeared. José and his parents picked at it, mostly in silence.

At the next table, José Manuel Arellano Cardona, 70, addressed his middle-aged son as muchachito — little boy.

In the coming days, José and his parents would relax into one another’s company, go shopping, attend church. Most evenings, they would stay up past midnight talking.

José Antonio Rodríguez holds a bouquet of flowers for his mother and father.

Eventually, the parents would head back to Zacatecas because of the limit on their visas.

But for now, they were together, and eager to see José’s home. He took them by the arms as he guided them out into the California sun.

The announcement marks the latest restriction imposed by the Trump administration on travellers from Africa.

The United States has announced a pause on all routine visa applications for citizens of Zimbabwe.

The State Department said in a statement on Thursday that the US embassy in Zimbabwe would pause all routine visa services starting from Friday “while we address concerns with the Government of Zimbabwe”.

The embassy described the measure as temporary and part of the Trump administration’s efforts to “prevent visa overstay and misuse”.

Most diplomatic and official visas would be exempt from the pause, the US said.

The US has enforced new travel restrictions on citizens from several African countries under President Donald Trump’s broader immigration enforcement policies.

In June, the US put in place travel bans on citizens from 12 countries, seven of them in Africa.

It increased restrictions on seven other nations, three of them African.

The US has also demanded that 36 countries, the majority of them in Africa, improve their vetting of travellers or face a ban on their citizens visiting the United States.

Zimbabwe, Malawi and Zambia were all on that list of 36 countries asked to improve their citizens’ travel documentation and take steps to address the status of their nationals who are in the US illegally.

“The Trump Administration is protecting our nation and our citizens by upholding the highest standards of national security and public safety through our visa process,” the US State Department said on Thursday.

The announcement came days after the US unveiled a pilot project requiring citizens of two other African countries, Malawi and Zambia, to pay a bond of up to $15,000 for tourist or business visas.

The bond will be forfeited if the applicant stays in the US after their visa expires.

The new bond policy announced on Tuesday requires Malawians and Zambians to pay bonds of $5,000, $10,000 or $15,000 as part of their application for a tourist or business visa to the US.

Under the programme, citizens of those countries must also arrive and depart at one of three airports: Boston’s Logan International Airport, New York’s John F Kennedy International Airport or Dulles International Airport near Washington, DC.

The visa bond pilot programme will start on August 20, the State Department said.

The United States Department of State has announced the first foreign citizens to be subject to bonds of up to $15,000 should they visit the country on tourist visas.

On Tuesday, Zambia and Malawi, both African countries, were the inaugural entries on a list of countries that the State Department will subject to visa bonds.

The idea, announced earlier this week, is to impose bonds on countries whose citizens have high rates of overstaying their US visas.

Tourists from those countries would have to pay an amount ranging from $5,000 to $15,000 at the time of their visa interview to enter the US. Then, if the tourist departs on or before their visa’s expiration, that amount would be refunded to them.

The money would also be returned if the visa were cancelled, if the travel does not occur, or if the tourist is denied entry into the US.

Should a tourist overstay their visa — or apply for asylum or another immigration-related programme while in the US — the federal government would keep the money.

More countries, in addition to Malawi and Zambia, are expected to be added to the list. The bond requirement is slated to take effect for those two countries starting on August 20.

“This targeted, common-sense measure reinforces the administration’s commitment to US immigration law while deterring visa overstays,” State Department spokesperson Tammy Bruce said on Tuesday.

US President Donald Trump has taken a hardline approach to immigration since his return to office in January for a second term.

On his first day back in office, Trump signed an executive order called “Protecting the American People Against Invasion”, which denounced the “unprecedented flood of illegal immigration” into the US.

It pledged to forcefully execute US immigration laws. That executive order was ultimately cited as the basis for the new visa bonds.

The bonds are part of a pilot programme announced on Monday, slated to last 12 months.

“This [temporary final rule] addresses the Trump Administration’s call to protect the American people by faithfully executing the immigration laws of the United States,” a filing to the Federal Register reads.

Every year, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) releases a report about visa overstays in the US.

The most recent report, released in 2024, found that there were 565,155 visa overstays for fiscal year 2023. That amounted to only 1.45 percent of the total non-immigrant admissions into the US.

“In other words, 98.55 percent of the in-scope nonimmigrant visitors departed the United States on-time and in accordance with the terms of their admission,” the report explains.

In its breakdown of country-by-country overstay rates, the report indicated that both Malawi and Zambia had relatively high visa overstay rates, at 14.3 and 11.1 percent, respectively.

But Zambia and Malawi are both smaller countries with relatively few tourism- or business-related arrivals in the US.

According to the report, only 1,655 people arrived from Malawi in fiscal year 2023 for business or pleasure. Of that total, 237 overstayed their visas.

Meanwhile, 3,493 people arrived from Zambia for tourism or business during the same time frame. Of that total, 388 surpassed their visa limits.

Those numbers are dwarfed by the sheer numbers from larger, more populous countries with larger consumer bases. An estimated 20,811 Brazilians stayed in the US longer than their tourism or business visas allowed, for instance, and 40,884 overstays were from Colombia.

Critics have also pointed out that the newly imposed bonds put travel to the US — already a pricey prospect — further out of reach for residents of poorer countries.

The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), an advocacy group, was among those that denounced the new bond scheme as discriminatory. It described the system as a form of exploitation — a “legalised shakedown” — in a statement on Tuesday.

“This is not about national security,” said Robert McCaw, CAIR’s government affairs director. “It’s about weaponising immigration policy to extort vulnerable visitors, punish disfavored countries, and turn America’s welcome mat into a paywall.”

Citizens of countries that are part of the US’s visa waiver programmes are not subject to the visa bonds unveiled this week.

WASHINGTON — The State Department is proposing requiring applicants for business and tourist visas to post a bond of up to $15,000 to enter the United States, a move that may make the process unaffordable for many.

In a notice to be published in the Federal Register on Tuesday, the department said it would start a 12-month pilot program under which people from countries deemed to have high overstay rates and deficient internal document security controls could be required to post bonds of $5,000, $10,000 or $15,000 when they apply for a visa.

The proposal comes as the Trump administration is tightening requirements for visa applicants. Last week, the State Department announced that many visa renewal applicants would have to submit to an additional in-person interview, something that was not required in the past. In addition, the department is proposing that applicants for the Visa Diversity Lottery program have valid passports from their country of citizenship.

A preview of the bond notice, which was posted on the Federal Register website on Monday, said the pilot program would take effect within 15 days of its formal publication and is necessary to ensure that the U.S. government is not financially liable if a visitor does not comply with the terms of his or her visa.

“Aliens applying for visas as temporary visitors for business or pleasure and who are nationals of countries identified by the department as having high visa overstay rates, where screening and vetting information is deemed deficient, or offering citizenship by investment, if the alien obtained citizenship with no residency requirement, may be subject to the pilot program,” the notice said.

The countries affected will be listed once the program takes effect, it said.

The bond would not apply to citizens of countries enrolled in the Visa Waiver Program and could be waived for others depending on an applicant’s individual circumstances.

Visa bonds have been proposed in the past but have not been implemented. The State Department has traditionally discouraged the requirement because of the cumbersome process of posting and discharging a bond and because of a possible misperceptions by the public.

However, the department said that previous view “is not supported by any recent examples or evidence, as visa bonds have not generally been required in any recent period.”

Lee writes for the Associated Press.

A YouTuber who says he has travelled to every country has revealed how he had to spend thousands going to one place after the task of getting a Visa proved exceptionally difficult

A YouTuber who claims to have travelled to “all 197 countries in the world” has revealed which nation was the toughest to obtain a visa for. In recent years, American travel vlogger Drew Binsky has built up a following of over five millions subscribers and millions of views as he documents his travels across all corners of the globe.

In one of his latest videos, he shared the five countries he has found hardest to be granted a visa for. As he reflected on some of his earlier trips, he revealed that four of the five most difficult countries to gain access too were Iran, Eritrea, Syria and Venezuela.

He went on to disclose that it was Libya in North Africa that was the hardest to enter, he said that the “whole process was so confusing” and that it gave him “so much anxiety”.

Saying that they don’t grant tourist visas, he said that if you do want to visit for a holiday then you will have to opt for a business visa.

In order to get the business visa, he said that he had two options, either to go to the Libyan embassy in Washington, DC, USA or take a trip to Rome, Italy. Having opted for the latter, he chose to pay $500 (£375.72) to shorten his wait for the visa from a maximum of 14 days to a shorter period that ended up being five business days.

After finally making it to Libya for a three-day break, he said that the entire expedition, with the visa and his flights to Rome included, set him back by nearly $5,000 (£3,756.97).

While forking out the huge amount for the trip, he said: “That’s just part of the process, if you want to visit every country that’s what you have to do for Libya, all the land borders are closed you have to fly in and have to get it that way and it takes forever, and it’s annoying.”

Despite the eye-watering cost for such a short visit, he said that he was “super happy” to have made the “awesome” trip.

While there are four different types of visa available, the two that Drew referenced were a tourist/visitor and a business visa.

Although the rules differ depending on which country you’re travelling too, a visitor visa grants people to temporarily visit a country for tourism, visiting family and friends, and some other activities that are also allowed.

However, a business visa differs somewhat in that foreign nationals must be visiting in order to carry out business activities including going to meetings or conferences. The exact rules on what constitutes as business activities can vary from country to country.

BUENOS AIRES, Argentina — The United States and Argentina on Monday announced that they are working on a plan to allow Argentine tourists to again travel to the U.S. without a visa.

It probably will take two to three years before visa-free travel becomes a reality for Argentine passport holders, but the Trump administration’s move to kickstart the process marked a show of support for President Javier Milei, its staunchest ally in South America and a darling of conservatives around the world.

The gesture coincided with a visit by Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem to Buenos Aires, the Argentine capital, for closed-door meetings with Milei and his officials. Noem signed the statement of intent alongside Security Minister Patricia Bullrich in Milei’s office.

Noem, on horseback at the country’s sprawling Campo De Mayo army base and donning a cowboy hat and jeans, told reporters that the Trump administration would put Argentina on an “expedited path” to enrollment in the Visa Waiver Program.

Still, she cautioned that securing approval within the next year “would be very difficult,” according to a White House pool report.

The Department of Homeland Security praised Milei for reshaping Argentina’s foreign policy in line with that of the U.S.

“Under President Javier Milei’s leadership, Argentina is becoming an even stronger friend to the United States — more committed than ever to border security for both of our nations,” the statement said.

This first step toward waiving visa requirements for Argentines, it added, “highlights our strong partnership with Argentina and our mutual desire to promote lawful travel while deterring threats.”

The department cited Argentina as having the lowest visa overstay rate in the U.S. of any Latin American country.

Trump’s loyal ally in South America

The removal of rigorous U.S. visa requirements — particularly at a time when President Trump is tightening restrictions for foreign nationals — would offer a symbolic victory to Milei, a self-described “anarcho-capitalist” who rose to power as a far-right outsider mimicking Trump’s war-on-woke rhetoric and skillful use of social media.

When he became the first world leader to visit Trump after the U.S. election, Milei pranced around Mar-a-Lago like an excited school boy.

At the Conservative Political Action Committee convention in Washington in February, he gifted billionaire Elon Musk a bureaucracy-slashing chainsaw to support his DOGE campaign to eliminate government waste.

When not riding the far-right, pro-Trump speaking circuit, Milei is focused on straightening out South America’s second-largest economy after years of turmoil under left-wing populist rule. Through tough budget cuts and mass layoffs, Milei has succeeded in driving down Argentina’s notorious double-digit inflation.

The last time Argentines didn’t require a visa to enter the U.S. was in the 1990s under another free-market devotee, the late former President Carlos Menem.

Menem’s neo-liberal reforms and pegging of the peso 1 to 1 to the U.S. dollar destroyed Argentina’s industry, exacerbating poverty in what a century ago was one of the world’s wealthiest countries.

In the crisis that followed, the U.S. reimposed visa restrictions in 2002 as young Argentines seeking to flee misery lined up at European embassies and began to migrate illegally to the U.S.

“Argentina has had the advantage of the program before, and they’re looking to get back on track and reenrolled,” Noem, who grew up on a farm in rural South Dakota, said while feeding sugar cubes to a dark brown horse named Abundance, according to the pool report.

When pressed about her talks with Milei, she was short on specifics, saying they discussed security partnerships and “the business we could be doing together.” She said she appreciated Milei’s “embrace” of Trump’s policies.

The Argentine presidency described Monday’s preliminary agreement as “a clear demonstration of the excellent relationship, based on trust” between Milei and Trump.

After riding Abundance through the grassy fields of the army base, Noem rejoined U.S. and Argentine officials for asado — the traditional meat-centric barbecue and a national passion.

She is the third member of Trump’s Cabinet to meet Milei in Buenos Aires this year, after U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and U.S. Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.

Tough limits on travel to Trump’s America

More than 40 mostly European and wealthy Asian countries belong to the exclusive club that allows their citizens to travel to the U.S. without a visa for up to three months. However, border officers have the power to turn anyone away.

About 20 million tourists use the program each year. Currently, Chile is the only Latin American country in the program.

Overseas travel to the U.S. plunged in the early days of Trump’s return to the White House as tourists, especially from Latin America, feared being caught in the administration’s border crackdown. Some canceled travel plans to protest his foreign policy and anti-immigrant rhetoric.

But those numbers began to rebound in April, with more than 3 million international arrivals — 8% more than a year earlier — from countries other than Mexico or Canada, according to the International Trade Administration, an agency under the U.S. Department of Commerce.

In addition to clamping down on the southern border, Trump has put up additional obstacles for students, tourists and others looking to travel to the U.S.

His recently passed “big, beautiful” bill of domestic priorities calls for the enactment of a new “visa integrity fee” of $250 to be charged in addition to the cost of the visa itself.

Travel industry executives have expressed concern that the charge could drive away tourists who contribute more than $2 trillion annually and 9 million jobs to the U.S. economy, according to the International Trade Administration.

About a quarter of all travelers to the U.S. come from Latin America and the Caribbean, the agency says.

Arrivals from Argentina have jumped 25% this year — a bigger increase than from any other country.

Debre and Goodman write for the Associated Press. Goodman reported from Medellin, Colombia.

July 28 (UPI) — The Trump administration finalized a plan Monday that will help Argentina reinstate visa-free travel for its citizens.

Argentina’s re-entry to the Visa Waiver Program, which is expected to take up to three years before Argentine passport holders can travel without a visa to the United States, was announced Monday by Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem following meetings in Buenos Aires.

“Under President Javier Milei’s leadership, Argentina is becoming an even stronger friend to the United States — more committed than ever to border security for both of our nations,” said Noem.

“Argentina now has the lowest visa overstay rate in all of Latin America and 25% more Argentines traveled to the United States in the first four months of this year compared to last year — the biggest jump of any of the top international arrivals,” she added. “That is why we are now taking steps to allow Argentina back into the Visa Waiver Program.”

While Argentina was removed from the Visa Waiver Program in 2002, Monday’s intent to reinstate the country shows a growing support between the two nations and between President Donald Trump and Milei.

The Argentine government called Monday’s signing a “clear demonstration of the excellent relationship” between President Milei and Trump. Last week, a report from J.P. Morgan found a “deep and surprising” recovery in Argentina’s economy under Milei, as the country’s president has managed to lower inflation, secure fiscal balance and strengthen foreign reserves.

Noem signed the agreement along with Argentine Foreign Minister Gerardo Werthein and Argentine Minister of National Security Patricia Bullrich.

“This statement of intent I signed alongside Minister Werthein and Minister Bullrich highlights our strong partnership with Argentina and our mutual desire to promote lawful travel while deterring threats,” Noem said. “This kind of diplomatic leadership, spearheaded by President Trump, will help increase the safety of both countries.”

The Visa Waiver Program requires Argentina meet strong security requirements before final reinstatement, including revised travel policies, enhanced border security and data sharing.

The U.S. Visa Waiver Program allows citizens from certain counties to travel to the United States for business or pleasure for up to 90 days without needing a visa. More than 40 countries, including in Europe and Asia, are already part of the program. Argentina’s inclusion could benefit the country, politically and economically, and raise its global standing.

July 19 (UPI) — The U.S. visa of the Brazilian judge overseeing the criminal case against former Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro was revoked Friday, four days after President Donald Trump called the South American nation’s treatment of the former leader a “witch hunt.”

Secretary of State Marco Rubio made the announcement on Friday.

“President Trump made clear that his administration will hold accountable foreign nationals who are responsible for censorship of protected expression in the United States,” Rubio said in a statement. “Brazilian Supreme Federal Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes’s political witch hunt against Jair Bolsonaro created a persecution and censorship complex so sweeping that it not only violates basic rights of Brazilians, but also extends beyond Brazil’s shores to target Americans.

“I have therefore ordered visa revocations for Moraes and his allies on the court, as well as their immediate family members effective immediately.”

The visa restriction policy is pursuant to the Immigration and Nationality Act, which authorizes the secretary of state to not allow anyone whose entry into the United States “would have potentially serious adverse foreign policy consequences.”

Rubio, in a cable to diplomatic and consular posts on Thursday, said public comments on foreign elections “should be brief, focused on congratulating the winning candidate and, when appropriate, noted shared policy interests,” according to The New York Times, which obtained the memo.

De Moraes doesn’t travel often to the United States, The Washington Post reported.

Friday, de Moraes accused Bolsonaro and his son, Eduardo, of conspiring to incite U.S. hostilities against Brazil, ordering the former president to wear an ankle bracelet. Bolsonaro was also barred from contacting foreign governments, and blocked from using social media.

The judge also is investigating online misinformation, and has ordered the takedown of social media accounts that violate Brazil’s freedom of speech. In 2024, Elon Musk’s X restored service in the country after paying a $5 million fine and appointed a new legal representative there.

Trump’s social media company, The Trump Media & Technology Group, sued de Moraes in February, accusing him of censoring conservative voices on social media.

The judge is on the judicial panel to preside over Bolsonaro’s trial before Brazil’s Supreme Court, who was indicted in February after the alleged coup.

Bolsonaro has been accused of attempting to violently to retain power after his 2022 election loss to Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva.

Lula, in a speech Thursday night, condemned Bolsonaro’s supporters, whom he accused of siding with Trump about the “witch hunt.”

“They’re the true traitors of the homeland,” he said. “They don’t care about the economy of the country or the damage caused to our people.”

On Monday, Trump wrote a letter to Lula threatening a 50% tariff on imported goods, because of how Bolsonaro “has been treated” and an “unfair trade relationship.” Unless there is an agreement, the new rate takes effect on Aug. 1, he wrote.

Trump said that “the way Brazil has treated former President Bolsonaro, a Highly Respected Leader throughout the World during his term, including by the United States, is an international disgrace. The trial should not be taking place. It is a Witch Hunt that should end IMMEDIATELY.”

Trump also noted “Brazil’s insidious attacks on Free Elections, and the Fundamental Free Speech Rights of Americans.”

Then on Thursday, he posted on Truth Social a letter sent to Bolsonaro about his “terrible treatment you are receiving at the hands of an unjust system turned against you,” demanding an immediate trial.

“It is my sincere hope that the Government of Brazil changes course, stops attacking political opponents, and ends their ridiculous censorship regime. I will be watching closely.”

BATON ROUGE, La. — Federal authorities have charged three current or former Louisiana police chiefs with taking bribes in exchange for filing false police reports that would allow noncitizens to seek a visa that allows certain crime victims to stay in the U.S.

The false police reports would indicate that the immigrant was a victim of a crime that would qualify them to apply for a so-called U visa, U.S. Atty. Alexander C. Van Hook said Wednesday at a news conference in Lafayette. He said the police officials were paid $5,000 for each name they provided falsified reports for, and that there were hundreds of names.

There had been “an unusual concentration of armed robberies of people who were not from Louisiana,” Van Hook said, noting that two other people were also charged in the alleged scheme.

“In fact, the armed robberies never took place,” he said.

Earlier this month, a federal grand jury in Shreveport returned a 62-count indictment charging the five defendants with crimes including conspiracy to commit visa fraud, visa fraud, bribery, mail fraud and money laundering, Van Hook said.

Those charged are Oakdale Police Chief Chad Doyle, Forest Hill Police Chief Glynn Dixon, former Glenmora Police Chief Tebo Onishea, Michael “Freck” Slaney, a marshal in Oakdale, and Chandrakant “Lala” Patel, an Oakdale businessman.

If convicted, the defendants could face years or even decades of jail time.

According to investigators, people seeking special visas would reach out to Patel, who would contact the lawmen and offer them a payment in exchange for falsified police reports that named the migrants as victims of armed robberies that never occurred.

The scheme went on for nearly a decade, Van Hook said.

Getting a U visa can give some crime victims and their families a pathway to U.S. citizenship. About 10,000 people got them in the 12-month period that ended Sept. 30, 2022, which was the most recent period for which the Homeland Security Department has published data.

These special visas, which were created by Congress in 2000, are specifically for victims of certain crimes “who have suffered mental or physical abuse” and are “helpful to law enforcement or government officials in the investigation or prosecution of criminal activity,” based on a description of the program published by U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services.

“These visas are designed to help law enforcement and prosecutors prosecute crimes where you need the victim or the witness there, ” Van Hook said. “U visas serve a valuable purpose, and this is a case where they were abused.”

When asked about the extent of the fraud, Van Hook said there were “hundreds of names” — specifically for visas that were approved.

At least two of the police chiefs had been arrested as of the Wednesday morning news conference, authorities said.

Lester Duhé, a spokesperson for the Louisiana attorney general’s office, said that the office was assisting federal agents with “court-authorized activities” when asked about its role in the case.

The current or former police chiefs are from small central Louisiana municipalities that are near each other. They’re in a part of the state that is home to multiple immigration detention facilities. Although Louisiana doesn’t share a border with a foreign country, there are nine ICE detention facilities in the state — holding nearly 7,000 people.

Local news outlets reported seeing ICE and FBI agents entering the homes of two of the chiefs. Van Hook said authorities searched multiple police departments and a Subway sandwich shop that Patel operated.

Van Hook and others said at the news conference that the arrests do not mean the indicted chiefs’ departments are corrupt.

In 2021, the USCIS warned that the U-visa program was susceptible to fraud after an audit from the Office of Inspector General found that administrators hadn’t addressed deficiencies in their process.

The audit found that USCIS approved a handful of suspicious law enforcement signatures that were not cross-referenced with a database of authorized signatures, according to the OIG report. They were also not closely tracking fraud case outcomes, the total number of U visas granted per year, and were not effectively managing the backlog, which led to crime victims waiting for nearly 10 years before receiving a U visa.

Cline and Mustian write for the Associated Press. Mustian reported from New York. AP writer Valerie Gonzalez in McAllen, Texas, contributed to this report.

BOSTON — Plaintiffs in a lawsuit challenging the Trump administration’s campaign of arresting and deporting college faculty and students who participated in pro-Palestinian demonstrations spent the first few days of the trial showing how the crackdown silenced scholars and targeted more than 5,000 protesters.

The lawsuit, filed by several university associations, is one of the first against President Trump and members of his administration to go to trial. Plaintiffs want U.S. District Judge William Young to rule that the policy violates the 1st Amendment and the Administrative Procedure Act, a law that governs how federal agencies develop and issue regulations.

The government argues that no such policy exists and that it is enforcing immigration laws legally to protect national security.

Investigating protesters

One of the key witnesses was Peter Hatch, who works for the Homeland Security Investigations unit of Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Over two days of testimony, Hatch told the court a “Tiger Team” was formed in March — after two executive orders that addressed terrorism and combating antisemitism — to investigate people who took part in the protests.

Hatch said the team received as many as 5,000 names of protesters and wrote reports on about 200 who had potentially violated U.S. law. The reports, several of which were shown in court Thursday, included biographical information, criminal history, travel history and affiliations with pro-Palestinian groups as well as press clips and social media posts on their activism or allegations of their affiliation with Hamas or other anti-Israel groups.

Until this year, Hatch said, he could not recall a student protester being referred for a visa revocation.

“It was anything that may relate to national security or public safety issues, things like: Were any of the protesters violent or inciting violence? I think that’s a clear, obvious one,” Hatch testified. “Were any of them supporting terrorist organizations? Were any of them involved in obstruction or unlawful activity in the protests?”

Among the report subjects were Palestinian activist and Columbia University graduate Mahmoud Khalil, who was released last month after 104 days in federal immigration detention. Khalil has become a symbol of Trump’s clampdown on the protests.

Another was Tufts University student Rumeysa Ozturk, who was released in May from a Louisiana facility. She spent six weeks in detention after she was arrested while walking on the street of a Boston suburb. She says she was illegally detained following an op-ed she cowrote last year criticizing the school’s response to the war in Gaza.

Hatch also acknowledged that most of the names came from Canary Mission, a group that says it documents people who “promote hatred of the U.S.A., Israel and Jews on North American college campuses.” The right-wing Jewish group Betar was another source, he said.

Hatch said most of the leads were dropped when investigators could not find ties to protests and the investigations were not inspired by a new policy but rather a procedure in place at least since he took the job in 2019.

What is Canary Mission?

Weeks before Khalil’s arrest, a spokesperson for Betar told the Associated Press that the activist topped a list of foreign students and faculty from nine universities that it submitted to officials, including Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who made the decision to revoke Khalil’s visa.

The Department of Homeland Security said at the time that it was not working with Betar and refused to answer questions about how it was treating reports from outside groups.

In March, speculation grew that administration officials were using Canary Mission to identify and target student protesters. That’s when immigration agents arrested Ozturk.

Canary Mission has denied working with administration officials, while noting speculation that its reports led to that arrest and others.

While Canary Mission prides itself on outing anyone it labels as antisemitic, its leaders refuse to identify themselves and its operations are secretive. News reports and tax filings have linked the site to a nonprofit based in the central Israeli city of Beit Shemesh. But journalists who have visited the group’s address, listed in documents filed with Israeli authorities, have found a locked and seemingly empty building.

In recent years, news organizations have reported that several wealthy Jewish Americans made cash contributions to support Canary Mission, disclosed in tax paperwork filed by their personal foundations. But most of the group’s funding remains opaque, funneled through a New York-based fund that acts as a conduit for Israeli causes.

Were student protesters targeted?

Attorneys for the plaintiffs pressed a State Department official Friday over whether protests were grounds for revoking a student’s visa, repeatedly invoking several cables issued in response to Trump’s executive orders as examples of policy guidance.

But Maureen Smith, a senior advisor in the State Department’s Bureau of Consular Affairs, said protest alone wasn’t a critical factor. She wasn’t asked specifically about pro-Palestinian protests.

“It’s a bit of a hypothetical question. We would need to look at all the facts of the case,” she said. “If it were a visa holder who engages in violent activity, whether it’s during a protest or not — if they were arrested for violent activity — that is something we would consider for possible visa revocation.”

Smith also said she didn’t think a student taking part in a nonviolent protest would be a problem but said it would be seen in a “negative light” if the protesters supported terrorism. She wasn’t asked to define what qualified as terrorism nor did she provide examples of what that would include.

Scholars scared by the crackdown

The trial opened with Megan Hyska, a green card holder from Canada who is a philosophy professor at Northwestern University, detailing how efforts to deport Khalil and Ozturk prompted her to scale back her activism, which had included supporting student encampments and protesting in support of Palestinians.

“It became apparent to me, after I became aware of a couple of high-profile detentions of political activists, that my engaging in public political dissent would potentially endanger my immigration status,” Hyska said.

Nadje Al-Ali, a green card holder from Germany and professor at Brown University, said that after the arrests of Khalil and Ozturk, she canceled a planned research trip and a fellowship to Iraq and Lebanon, fearing that “stamps from those two countries would raise red flags” upon her return. She also declined to take part in anti-Trump protests and dropped plans to write an article that was to be a feminist critique of Hamas.

“I felt it was too risky,” Al-Ali said.

Casey writes for the Associated Press. AP writer Adam Geller in New York contributed to this report.

WASHINGTON — Foreign tourists are trickling back to China after the country loosened its visa policy to unprecedented levels. Citizens from 74 countries can now enter China for up to 30 days without a visa, a big jump from previous regulations.

The government has been steadily expanding visa-free entry in a bid to boost tourism, the economy and its soft power. More than 20 million foreign visitors entered without a visa in 2024 — almost one-third of the total and more than double from the previous year, according to the National Immigration Administration.

“This really helps people to travel because it is such a hassle to apply for a visa and go through the process,” Georgi Shavadze, a Georgian living in Austria, said on a recent visit to the Temple of Heaven in Beijing.

While most tourist sites are still packed with far more domestic tourists than foreigners, travel companies and tour guides are now bracing for a bigger influx in anticipation of summer holiday goers coming to China.

“I’m practically overwhelmed with tours and struggling to keep up,” says Gao Jun, a veteran English-speaking tour guide with over 20 years of experience. To meet growing demand, he launched a new business to train anyone interested in becoming an English-speaking tour guide. “I just can’t handle them all on my own,” he said.

After lifting tough COVID-19 restrictions, China reopened its borders to tourists in early 2023, but only 13.8 million people visited in that year, less than half the 31.9 million in 2019, the last year before the pandemic.

30 days for many in Europe, Asia, Latin America and the Mideast

In December 2023, China announced visa-free entry for citizens of France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Spain and Malaysia. Almost all of Europe has been added since then. Travelers from five Latin American countries and Uzbekistan became eligible last month, followed by four in the Middle East. The total will grow to 75 on July 16 with the addition of Azerbaijan.

About two-thirds of the countries have been granted visa-free entry on a one-year trial basis.

For Norwegian traveler Øystein Sporsheim, this means his family would no longer need to make two round-trip visits to the Chinese embassy in Oslo to apply for a tourist visa, a time-consuming and costly process with two children in tow. “They don’t very often open, so it was much harder,” he said.

“The new visa policies are 100% beneficial to us,” said Jenny Zhao, a managing director of WildChina, which specializes in boutique and luxury routes for international travelers. She said business is up 50% compared with before the pandemic.

While the U.S. remains their largest source market, accounting for around 30% of their current business, European travelers now make up 15% to 20% of their clients, a sharp increase from less than 5% before 2019, according to Zhao. “We’re quite optimistic,” Zhao said, “we hope these benefits will continue.”

Trip.com Group, a Shanghai-based online travel agency, said the visa-free policy has significantly boosted tourism. Air, hotel and other bookings on their website for travel to China doubled in the first three months of this year compared with the same period last year, with 75% of the visitors from visa-free regions.

No major African country is eligible for visa-free entry, despite the continent’s relatively close ties with China.

North Americans and some others in transit can enter for 10 days

Those from 10 countries not in the visa-free scheme have another option: entering China for up to 10 days if they depart for a different country than the one they came from. The policy is limited to 60 ports of entry, according to the country’s National Immigration Administration.

The transit policy applies to 55 countries, but most are also on the 30-day visa-free entry list. It does offer a more restrictive option for citizens of the 10 countries that aren’t: the Czech Republic, Lithuania, Sweden, Russia, the United Kingdom, Ukraine, Indonesia, Canada, the U.S. and Mexico.

Aside from the U.K., Sweden is the only other high-income European country that didn’t make the 30-day list. Ties with China have frayed since the ruling Chinese Communist Party sentenced a Swedish book seller, Gui Minhai, to prison for 10 years in 2020. Gui disappeared in 2015 from his seaside home in Thailand but turned up months later in police custody in mainland China.

Ting writes for the Associated Press. AP writer Ken Moritsugu and video producer Liu Zheng in Beijing contributed to this report.

Ye, formerly known as Kanye West, will no longer be able to enter Australia after releasing a song that praises Nazi leader Adolf Hitler.

Tony Burke, Australia’s home affairs minister, told the Australian Broadcasting Corp. on Wednesday that the country had canceled his visa in early May, around the time “Heil Hitler” was released.

Ye has visited the country frequently since marrying Bianca Censori, who is from Melbourne.

“If someone argued that antisemitism was rational, I would not let them come here,” Burke said. “[Ye] has been coming to Australia for a long time … and he’s made a lot of offensive comments.”

The song proved to be the final strike for Ye. First shared in a social media post on X, “Heil Hitler” as been widely denounced for its racial epithets and antisemitism. It was also subsequently banned on most streaming platforms.

In the song, Ye sampled an infamous speech made by Hitler in 1935 at Krupp Factory, two years after he was appointed chancellor of the Nazi party.

Its music video, released May 8, shows a group of individuals dressed in animal skins reciting the song’s lyrics.

Ye’s behavior has long been controversial, but his antisemitism in recent years has put former colleagues in an awkward position.

John Legend, whose 2013 effort “Love in the Future” was executive produced by Ye, had a clear response in a recent interview.

“It never affects me personally, but just the whole story is sad. Like, seeing this guy praise Hitler, seeing this guy be this force of hate and just vitriol and nastiness,” Legend said during an appearance on New York’s Hot 97 radio show. “All the things he’s done to make the world more beautiful and interesting, for him to be this now, it’s sad. It’s just sad.”

He clarified that during his time on Ye’s G.O.O.D. Music label between 2004 and 2016, he never saw evidence that the rapper was “obsessed with Hitler.”

Legend added that despite Ye’s recent behavior, he has no regrets over their past collaborations: “I’m so glad we did what we did together.”

Santa Barbara, California – Far away from US President Donald Trump’s public confrontations with elite universities like Harvard and Columbia, students at the bustling University of California at Santa Barbara (UCSB) are finishing up their final exams under the sunny skies shining above the nearby beach.

Despite the distance and pleasant weather, students here still feel the cloud of uncertainty hanging over them, created by Trump’s rhetoric and policies towards foreign students.

“The overall mood across the room [among international students] is that people are looking for other options,” said Denis Lomov, a 26-year-old PhD student from Russia who has been at UCSB since 2022 studying climate change politics and energy transitions.

Since coming into office this year, the Trump administration has revoked the student visas of hundreds of foreign nationals, slashed funding for science and research programmes, arrested and tried to deport foreign nationals involved in pro-Palestine campus activism, and suspended student visa appointments.

For international students at universities like UCSB, where nearly 15 percent of all students are from outside the US, the rhetoric and policies have left students wondering about their futures in the country.

“It makes you wonder if maybe you’d rather go somewhere else,” Lomov told Al Jazeera, adding that he is still several years away from completing his PhD.

Like his fellow international students, he said he has started to consider whether his skills might be more valued in places like Canada or Europe after he finishes his programme.

“I think it’s the unpredictability of these policies that makes me fear about the future, both with me being a student, but also after I graduate,” he said.

Lack of certainty

The Trump administration’s actions against universities and foreign students have met mixed results in the courts.

On Monday, in one of the Trump administration’s first significant legal victories in those efforts, a federal judge dismissed a lawsuit from Columbia University over the government’s cuts to the university’s federal funding, based on allegations that the university had not taken adequate steps to curb pro-Palestine activism in the name of combatting anti-Semitism on campus.

In another ruling, also on Monday, a judge extended a restraining order pausing Trump’s efforts to block incoming international students from attending Harvard as the case makes its way through the legal system. Trump has also threatened to revoke Harvard’s tax-exempt status and has frozen more than $2.6bn in research grants. Harvard has also filed a lawsuit challenging those cuts.

Several universities in the UC system, including UCSB, have warned international students against travelling outside of the country, a restriction that poses serious complications for their academic work and their personal lives.

“People are considering whether they’ll be able to go home and visit their families during their programme,” said Anam Mehta, a US national and PhD student at UCSB.

“They’re being extra cautious about what they post online out of concern about being questioned at the airport,” added Mehta, who is also involved with the UAW 4811 academic workers union.

These concerns, he said, could also stymie the ability of international students to conduct field work in foreign countries, a common feature of graduate research, or attend academic conferences abroad.

Some students — and even university administrators themselves — have noted that it is difficult to keep up with the raft of policy announcements, media reports, lawsuits, and counter-lawsuits that have unfolded as Trump presses his attacks on higher education.

“There have been frequent changes and a lot of these policies have been implemented very quickly and without a lot of advanced notice,” Carola Smith, an administrator at Santa Barbara City College (SBCC), said, noting that prospective international students have reached out with questions about whether they are still able to study in the US.

Smith says that between 60 and 70 different national identities are represented on campus and that, in addition to international students paying higher tuition fees than US students, their presence on campus provides a welcome exposure to a wider variety of perspectives for their classmates and creates connections with people from other parts of the world.

With student visa appointments currently suspended, Smith predicted the number of foreign student enrollments could drop by as much as 50 percent in the coming year.

Shifting attitudes

The stress of keeping up with shifting developments has also been paired with a more abstract concern: that the US, once seen as a country that took pride in its status as a global destination for research and academics, has become increasingly hostile to the presence of foreign students.

“Harvard has to show us their lists [of foreign students]. They have foreign students, almost 31 percent of their students. We want to know where those students come from. Are they troublemakers? What countries do they come from?” Trump said in March.

The administration has also said that international students take university spots that could go to US students, in line with a more inward-looking approach to policy that sees various forms of exchange with other countries as a drain on the US rather than a source of mutual benefit.

“They’re arguing that they don’t need international students, that this is talent they should be cultivating here at home,” says Jeffrey Rosario, an assistant professor at Loma Linda University in southern California.

“You can see a throughline between this and their tariffs abroad, based on this form of economic nationalism that says the rest of the world is ripping us off,” added Rosario, who has written about the government’s history of trying to exert influence over universities.

For Lomov, the student from Russia, the atmosphere has him wondering if his skills might find a better home elsewhere.

“I left Russia because I didn’t feel welcome there, and my expertise wasn’t really needed. That’s why I left for the United States, because I knew the United States provides amazing opportunities for academics and research,” said Lomov.

“But now it feels like maybe I’m back in the same place, where I have to leave again.”

Think of the World Cup as a big dinner party. Only instead of asking over family, neighbors and some folks from the office, the whole planet has been invited.

Many of those people will be coming to Southern California, and with Wednesday marking the one-year countdown to the tournament’s kickoff, Larry Freedman, co-chair of the Los Angeles World Cup host committee, acknowledges there’s still a lot of tidying up that has to be done before the guests arrive.

“As with any event of this magnitude, there are a tremendous number of moving pieces,” he said. “Nobody is ready, 100%, a year out. When we signed up for this, we knew we would be working to the end to get ready.”

The 2026 World Cup will be the largest and most complex sporting event in history, with 48 national teams playing 104 games in 16 cities spread across the U.S., Mexico and Canada over 39 days. Eight games will be played at SoFi Stadium in Inglewood.

With more than 6 million fans expected to attend matches and another 6 billion engaging globally, FIFA, the World Cup’s organizer, says the economic impact to the three countries could top $40 billion. But the number of obstacles host cities will have to negotiate are almost as large and complex as the tournament itself.

“Transportation, communications, ticketing, security, the fan fest,” Freedman said. “You name it.”

Hovering over it all like a black cloud are uncertainties over visas, which about half the fans coming to the U.S. for the tournament will need in order to enter the country.

Last week, the Trump administration reneged on a pledge to host an open World Cup by issuing a travel ban on people from 12 countries, including Iran, which has already qualified for the World Cup. Citizens of seven other countries face severe restrictions in obtaining visas.

Before that, the State Department, which is charge of visa issuance, announced plans to close 10 embassies and 17 consulates and reduce its work force by 3,400 at a time when the average wait for a visa application appointment in some countries is more than a year.

And Southern California, which will host the U.S. national team’s first game, has experienced days of civil unrest sparked by widespread immigration raids. After protesters shut down freeways, burned cars and vandalized businesses, the national guard was deployed.

The turmoil could threaten the success of an event that Kathryn Schloessman, president and chief executive of the L.A. Sports & Entertainment Commission, considers both a unique opportunity and a major responsibility.

“The thing that keeps me awake at night is how quickly this has been,” she said. “We started in 2017 on this bid and it just always seemed like it was a long way away. Then, all of sudden, poof, we’re at one year out.”

“I want to make a positive impact on people and their memories,” she continued. “That, to me, is the biggest responsibility here because we’re not going to have this event here again in my lifetime. So this is the one opportunity of the world’s biggest event to really do some good in L.A.”

This is already the second World Cup played in the U.S. in Schloessman’s lifetime. The first, in 1994, was the most successful in history, setting records for average and overall attendance and returning a record $50-million profit to its organizing committee, headed by Alan Rothenberg.

A year out from that tournament, Rothenberg had far different concerns. The U.S. didn’t have a first-division soccer league then and its national team had played in just one World Cup since 1950. As a result, soccer was so foreign to most Americans, many of the nine stadiums selected to host games didn’t have fields wide enough to meet FIFA standards.

“We had a keen sense of confidence and yet, at the same time, total apprehension. Because nobody had ever done it before,” Rothenberg said.

“We were reasonably confident about how ticket sales were going to go. A lot was riding on the success of the [U.S.] team. If the team was an embarrassment it would be a real downcast over the entire operation.”

Instead, the U.S. drew Switzerland, beat Colombia and advanced to the knockout round, where it played eventual champion Brazil even for 70 minutes.

That World Cup also introduced a number of features that have since become common, such as fan fests and group-play victories counting for three points instead of two. It was also the first World Cup in which a temporary grass carpet was laid over an artificial-turf field; next summer eight of the 16 stadiums will do that.

Rothenberg even planned a halftime show for the final at the Rose Bowl, signing Whitney Houston to perform. FIFA nixed the idea then but has revived it for 2026.

“Everything we did was like a first, other than the actual playing of the matches,” Rothenberg said.

“I think it really took ‘94 to let the rest of the soccer world accept the fact that ‘OK, the U.S. can be part of our club.’ We were doing some unusual things. We were using celebrities and doing all kinds of entertainment events to build public interest. We had our legacy tour where we were going to city after city, basically traveling the country to get people interested.”

Fans pack the Rose Bowl during a World Cup match between Brazil and Italy on July 17, 1994.

(Lois Bernstein / Associated Press)

And Rothenberg could do that because, as president of U.S. Soccer and chairman of the World Cup organizing committee, he was in charge of the entire tournament. That has changed. FIFA now runs the show, overseeing each of the 16 World Cup cities, who are acting independently of one another.

The financial agreements between FIFA and the World Cup hosts have also changed, which is why it’s highly unlikely any future tournament will be as profitable for the host country as Rothenberg’s was for the U.S. In 1994, FIFA shared some of its earnings with local organizers, who were also allowed to cut their own sponsorship deals. That led to a $50 million surplus that funded the U.S. Soccer Foundation.

This time around FIFA is taking virtually all tournament-related revenue from ticket sales, sponsorships and broadcasting, even at the local level, while leaving host cities on the hook for public services, security and stadium operations. The relationship is so one-sided that Chicago, where the World Cup opened in 1994, backed out of the 2026 tournament citing the costs to the public.

Los Angeles threatened to pass on the tournament as well until a privately funded host committee made up of nearly a dozen local sports and civic organizations agreed to cover much of the risks to taxpayers.

In return, a report by Micronomics Economic Research and Consulting estimates Southern California will receive $594 million in economic impact from the tournament, including $343 million in direct spending on hotels, meals, transportation and other services from the estimated 180,000 out-of-town World Cup visitors.

But that’s assuming those visitors show up. According to the State Department website, wait times for a non-immigrant B1/B2 visa — the one World Cup visitors who do not qualify for a visa waiver will need to enter the U.S. — topped a year in Colombia, Honduras and several cities in Mexico.

And things may be getting worse.

“Based on our experience, the approval rate for B1/B2 tourist and/or temporary business visas in Colombia has changed,” said Pamela Monroy, a paralegal who helps prospective U.S. visitors through the immigration process. “There has been a considerable increase in the denial rate for this visa category. We believe this is a result of the ongoing policies and changes in immigration matters being implemented by the Donald Trump administration.”

Those kinds of stories worry Rep. Sydney Kamlager-Dove (D-Los Angeles), whose district borders SoFi Stadium. Last month Kamlager-Dove sent a letter, signed by a bipartisan group of more than 50 congressional representatives, to Secretary of State Marco Rubio asking him to “ensure expeditious and secure visa processing” for the World Cup.

In testimony before the House Foreign Affairs Committee, of which Kamlager-Dove is a member, Rubio promised he would. But the congresswoman has yet to see proof.

“Show me what that looks like,” she said Monday. “We’re not going to wait too long. We’re all unified, Republicans and Democrats. We want these games to be successful, want them to get their act together and are willing to work with one another to push the State Department to follow through on their commitment.”

The White House, meanwhile, has sent mixed messages. Last month, President Trump opened the first meeting of a task force on the World Cup by saying that “everyone who wants to come here to enjoy, to have fun and to celebrate the game will be able to do that.”

A month later he signed the travel ban, effectively limiting the definition of “everyone.”

President Trump signs a soccer ball as Qatar’s Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani, right, and FIFA President Gianni Infantino look on at Lusail Palace in Doha, Qatar, on May 14.

(Alex Brandon / Associated Press)

At that same White House meeting in May, Vice President JD Vance, the co-chair of the task force, warned World Cup visitors that they would have to leave immediately after the tournament. “Otherwise,” he said “they will have to talk to Secretary Noem,” referring to Homeland Security secretary Kristi Noem, whose agency has detained and interrogated people with approved immigration documents at U.S. points of entry.

The last two World Cup hosts — Russia in 2018 and Qatar in 2022 — allowed visitors to enter their countries with a game ticket essentially doubling as their visa. Both governments also performed background checks on all visitors coming to the tournament.

Trump’s travel ban, which took effect Monday, bars travel to the U.S. for people in 12 countries and severely limits access to people from seven others. In addition to Iran, which has already assured itself a place in the 2026 tournament, those 19 countries include Sudan, Haiti, Cuba and Venezuela, whose teams still have a chance to earn World Cup bids via regional qualifying tournaments.

An exception to the travel ban will allow athletes, coaches and support staff into the U.S. but not fans, directly contradicting FIFA president Gianni Infantino, who told delegates at last month’s FIFA Congress that “the world is welcome in America … but definitely also all the fans.”

Infantino has built a relationship with Trump, attending the president’s inauguration in January. If the administration’s seemingly contradictory actions caught the FIFA leader by surprise, it also might have convinced some foreign soccer fans to not attend games in the U.S.

Marcel Ott, a 30-year-old software consultant from Leipzig, Germany, has long been saving for a trip to the World Cup but reports of German tourists being detained, some for weeks, at U.S. airports has led him to reconsider.

“Now I’m not so sure because of the political developments in the U.S.,” he said in German. “I don’t know if it’s worth the risk of getting stopped and detained at the airport and risk being deporting back to Germany.”

Germany is one of 42 countries whose citizens are eligible for the visa waiver program, which generally allows them to enter the U.S. for visits of up to 90 days without a visa. However, they must obtain Electronic System for Travel Authorization (ESTA) approval prior to travel and can be turned away at any point of entry by Customs and Border Protection officers.

Ott, who has attended two World Cups, said he may fly to Canada and try to enter the U.S. from there.

“If I get sent back at the border crossing to Canada, I won’t have to fly back to Germany right away,” he said. “I’m thinking the guards at the border to Canada might be a little more relaxed. And there are World Cup games in Canada, too, so it wouldn’t be so bad if I get sent back at the Canadian border.

“To be honest, I am still not sure what to do next year.”

A 21-member FIFA delegation visits SoFi Stadium in 2021.

(Los Angeles World Cup Host Committee)

Marlene, 33, who declined to give her last name, is also uncertain. A city government employee in Berlin, she attended the last two World Cups in Russia and Qatar and planned to travel to the U.S. next summer “but the general events and U.S. politics put me off. I think it would be better for me not to travel to the USA.”

But Volker Heun, who worked as a bank executive in the U.S. and once golfed with Trump, said those fears are misplaced, citing the nearly two million Germans who visited America without issue last year.

“This whole issue is being totally overblown in the German media,” said Heun, who plans to enter a World Cup lottery for tickets to multiple games. “The atmosphere is going to be great.”

In South Korea, Jo Ho-tae, who helps manage the Red Devils, a supporter group that recently followed the country’s national team to a qualifying match in Jordan, said he will rely on government officials to warn of potential problems.

“I haven’t thought too much about Trump’s immigration policy yet,” he said. “But who even knows if our matches will be held in the U.S. and not in Canada or Mexico?”

The White House could always reverse its immigration policy, as it has done repeatedly with tariffs, and prioritize visa requests for World Cup travelers. That’s the solution Freedman, L.A. organizing committee co-chair, is betting on.

“They are looking at this as a showcase event for the country and the host cities. And they understand, it seems, how important it is to welcome the world,” he said. “I am hopeful that it all gets sorted out in a good way.”

Many close observers of World Cup preparations share Freedman’s optimism.

Whether that cautious optimism is justified may soon be known. Tickets for the tournament are expected to go on sale this summer and the draw to determine matchups and venues for the group-play stage of the tournament will be held this winter. Those two events could go a long way toward determining how the World Cup plays out, said Travis Murphy, a former U.S. diplomat who is founder and chief executive of Jetr Global Sports + Entertainment, a Washington-based firm that works to solve visa and immigrant issues for athletes and sports franchises.

“There’s kind of this stopwatch that begins the moment the draw is complete to figure out [training] camps and logistics and visas and travel arrangements,” he said.

“I do think they’ll make it happen. Is that to say there won’t be any issues? Of course not. There was never going to be a scenario where there’s not significant challenges to get all these people into the country.

“There are times when the rhetoric seems to run contrary to what’s happening on the ground. But it does, at least for the moment, seem like they’re implementing changes that are ultimately going to be helpful.”

Baxter reported from Los Angeles, special correspondent Kirschbaum from Berlin and staff writer Max Kim from Seoul.