The South China Morning Post (SCMP) on Wednesday reported “frustration and disbelief” in China after “American consulates around the world began cancelling immigrant visa interviews.”
According to the U.S. State Department, the mass cancellations were needed for a “global training initiative” on screening and vetting visa applicants.
“A more prosperous America means ensuring that visa applicants are not likely to become a public charge, as defined under U.S. law and regulation, and not likely to become dependent on U.S. public benefits reserved for qualified Americans in need,” the State Department said in a statement to the media Tuesday.
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The State Department said “appointments for visa and services will be adjusted” for an undetermined period of time, until the training program can be completed.
U.S. embassies and consulates around the world have reportedly begun emailing visa applicants to say their interview appointments will be rescheduled at some time in the future, without providing a date.
According to the SCMP, an anonymous immigration agent wrote a post on China’s RedNote social media platform stating that the U.S. consulate in Guangzhou, China, has canceled all of Tuesday’s scheduled immigrant visa interviews, and cancellations would likely persist throughout the week.
The RedNote post said that visa appointments in late September were the earliest to be unaffected by the training initiative, although those could be rescheduled as well, so applicants were advised to watch for emails from the consulate.
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“It’s not just Guangzhou; similar situations have also been reported at other consulates around the world,” the agent wrote, adding that such a lengthy and widespread cancellation of interviews was unprecedented.
Some social media users said they have already received rescheduling emails, and some said they did not learn their appointments were canceled until they arrived at the Guangzhou consulate.
A State Department spokesman confirmed the cancellations to the SCMP and said the Trump administration was “protecting the American people by upholding the highest standards of screening and vetting of visa applicants.”
Secretary of State Marco Rubio speaks in the Treaty Room at the State Department, Tuesday, August 4, 2026, in Washington. (Tierney L. Cross/AP)
Like many other outlets reporting the visa pause, the SCMP suggested it might be the Trump administration’s response to a federal judge blocking a more focused freeze on applicants from 75 specific countries, which the administration issued in January.
“A federal judge last week struck down that policy, ruling that it went beyond U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio’s authority. Days later, immigrant visa interviews themselves were pulled from consular calendars worldwide – not through another country-specific ban, but under the banner of ‘training,’” the article observed.
The Financial Times (FT) on Tuesday quoted frustrated social media posts from applicants around the world, including a Reddit poster who wrote, “It bothers me that people travel out of the country to get this done, and they cancel their appointment.”
