Temporary Pause on Scheduling New Visa Appointments
*UPDATE* Per a US State Department Press Release on June 18, 2025, overseas posts will resume scheduling F, M, and J nonimmigrant visa applications soon. Applicants should check the relevant embassy or consulate website for appointment availability.
To facilitate this vetting, all applicants for F, M, and J nonimmigrant visas will be instructed to adjust the privacy settings on all of their social media profiles to “public.”
*UPDATE* As of June 9, 2025, we are receiving reports of students who have been able to schedule new visa appointments at multiple consulates. While this update is not true for all consulates and no official announcement has been made, we do encourage students who do not yet have a visa appointment for a summer or fall program to try to make an appointment.
As of, May 27th, 2025, several news outlets are reporting that the U.S. State Department will be temporarily pausing visa interview scheduling for student visas in order to clarify processes around vetting applicants' social media accounts. We continue to advise caution around travel for current students and encourage future students who are at risk of not acquiring a visa in time for their program to contact ISS.
Travel Restrictions
On June 4th, 2025 the President of the United States issued an executive order titled, Restricting the Entry of Foreign Nationals to Protect the United States from Foreign Terrorists and Other National Security and Public Safety Threats. The executive order calls for restrictions on the entry to the US of foreign nationals from the following countries:
Burundi, Cuba, Laos, Sierra Leone, Togo, Turkmenistan, Venezuela, Afghanistan, Burma, Chad, Republic of Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Haiti, Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, and Yemen.
Effective date: 12am EDT on June 9, 2025
We encourage students to reach out to visiting-intl@berkeley.edu if you believe that you will be affected by this executive order.
Registration Requirements
On March 12th, Department of Homeland Security published an Interim Final Rule which becomes effective on April 11, 2025 that amends DHS regulations to designate a new USCIS alien registration process for certain nonimmigrants to comply with required “registration” and fingerprinting provisions. Most non-immigrant visa holders will NOT be affected. If you or your dependents were issued a non-immigrant visa prior to arrival and/or you have a valid I-94 and were legally admitted to the US, your I-94 is evidence of your “registration”. However, some individuals crossing Canadian land borders and dependent children who have or are turning 14 while in the U.S. may be impacted. You can review the USCIS procedures to determine if you or your dependents need to register or re-register and you can retrieve your I-94 which serves as proof of registration here.
Protest Participation
Per a Fact Sheet and Executive Order issued in January 2025, entitled Additional Measures to Combat Anti-Semitism, we are seeing active measures being undertaken by several agencies including the Department of State, Department of Justice, and Homeland Security to seek out and cancel the visas of individuals who participated in protest activities related to the Israel-Hamas conflict in an Artificial Intelligence generated program called “Catch and Revoke.”
While international students have a right to protest, please be advised that these activities do carry increased risk of adverse immigration related impact in the current climate. We advise you to be conscientious of your social media presence and understand that there can always be immigration consequences if you are arrested for any reason.