US Suspends Immigrant Visa Appointments Worldwide, Kenyan Applicants Left in Limbo

The United States has paused immigrant visa appointments at its embassies and consulates worldwide, a sweeping, open-ended move that has left applicants across the globe, Kenyans among them, with rescheduled interviews and no date for when processing will resume.

What's Changed for Kenyan Applicants

Kenyans pursuing family-sponsored visas, employment-based pathways and other routes to a US green card are among those affected, according to reporting this week.

Applicants with interviews already booked at the US embassy in Nairobi have reportedly received notices that their appointments are being rescheduled, with no new date given.

Unlike an earlier, narrower suspension in January that targeted applicants from 75 named countries and spared Kenya, this latest pause applies to every country, making it the first time this year that Kenyan immigrant visa applicants have been directly caught up in the administration's visa restrictions.

A State Department spokesperson said the pause allows for "in-depth training" of consular officers worldwide, intended to help them screen applicants "comprehensively and consistently" for the risk of becoming a "public charge" reliant on US government assistance, a standard the administration has invoked repeatedly across its immigration policy this year.

President Trump has separately described the broader crackdown as aimed at improving domestic security.

Why the Timing Matters

The worldwide pause lands just days after a federal judge struck down the administration's earlier 75-country immigrant visa ban as unlawful.

Judge Jeannette Vargas ruled on 22 August that the policy was "patently unlawful," finding that Secretary of State Marco Rubio did not have the statutory authority to block visa issuance on those grounds, since federal immigration law reserves adjudication decisions to consular officers rather than the Secretary of State.

Whether the new, broader pause is a direct response to that ruling has not been officially confirmed, but the timing has not gone unnoticed by immigration lawyers and rights groups, who have criticised the administration's wider approach to vetting as discriminatory and lacking due process.

For now, the practical reality for applicants is uncertainty rather than clarity. No end date has been announced, and Kenyans with pending green card, family reunification or employment-based applications have little to go on beyond a rescheduling notice and a promise that new interview dates will follow.

Given how central US immigration, from the annual Diversity Visa lottery to family reunification, is to many Kenyan households' plans, the pause is likely to be felt well beyond the applicants directly affected, and is worth watching closely for any sign of when, or how, it lifts.