US visa applications can now be rejected if they have certain medical conditions such as diabetes, heart disease or obesity, under new Donald Trump administration guidance that expands the government’s ability to reject applicants on health grounds.
The directives were issued Thursday in a State Department cable to and obtained by consular officials KFF Health Newsdirects visa officials to consider a wide range of chronic or costly medical conditions — including cardiovascular, respiratory, neurological, and mental health disorders — as potential reasons for ineligibility.
The rationale, according to the document, is to prevent immigrants who may become a “public charge” or financial burden on the US government from entering the country. Officers are required to assess whether applicants have sufficient financial means to cover medical costs “for their entire expected life” without seeking public assistance.
The new rules represent a major departure from long-standing practice. While health checks have long been part of visa applications – checking for infectious diseases such as tuberculosis and ensuring vaccination compliance – the expanded criteria go beyond infectious conditions. According to experts CBS They say the move gives more discretion to visa officers, who are not medically trained, to make subjective judgments about an applicant’s long-term health outlook and economic stability.
Charles Wheeler, senior attorney at the Catholic Immigration Legal Network, said: CBSThe policy “encourages consular officers to speculate about potential medical costs based on bias or limited knowledge.” He noted that the language contradicts the State Department’s Foreign Affairs Manual, which prohibits visa denials based on “what-if” scenarios.
The telegram also expands the scope of scrutiny to include applicants’ dependents, and urges officials to consider whether family members’ disabilities or chronic illnesses could impact an applicant’s ability to work and remain self-sufficient.
Immigration lawyers and public health experts criticized the guidance as part of the Trump administration’s broader crackdown on immigration, which has included mass deportations, restrictions on refugees, and efforts to reshape the visa system to favor wealthier and healthier applicants.
said Sophia Genovese, an immigration lawyer at Georgetown University CBS That the guidance “goes well beyond the traditional medical examination” and effectively allows visa officers to reject applications based on “speculative medical costs or circumstances that are extremely common throughout the world.”
About one in ten people globally suffer from diabetes, and cardiovascular disease remains the leading cause of death worldwide. Genovese said as well CBS And that such criteria could exclude millions of potential applicants: “If the United States begins to treat chronic diseases as ineligible, it raises serious ethical and humanitarian questions about who deserves entry.”
(tags for translation)US visa rules
