The measures that reached people already inside
Entry bans kept visas already issued. Holds and reviews of pending and approved files are what reached people part-way through.
Two kinds of measure
Headlines tend to treat every restriction as the same thing. The texts split them into two kinds. Entry bans decide who may arrive. Holds and reviews decide what happens to files already open, sometimes files already approved. Since late 2025, it is the second kind that has reached people mid-process.
Entry bans: issued visas kept
The United States entry bans, Proclamation 10949 (in force 9 June 2025) and Proclamation 10998 (in force 1 January 2026), reach nationals of listed countries who were outside the US and held no valid visa on the start date. Both texts say no visa issued before the start date would be revoked under them. Green-card holders are exempt. The January 2026 text removed the June 2025 exception for spouses, children and parents of US citizens, so relatives without a visa yet lost that protection on 1 January 2026.
Holds and reviews: pending files frozen, approved files reopened
United States. Two policy memos from US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS, the agency that decides applications filed from inside the US) went further than the entry bans.
- PM-602-0192, dated 2 December 2025, held all pending asylum applications, of every nationality, and held pending applications (green cards, travel documents, removal of conditions on residence and others) from people of the countries in the June 2025 ban who were already in the US, whatever their entry date. It also ordered a re-review of applications already approved for people from those countries who entered the US on or after 20 January 2021. The memo cites the shooting of two National Guard members in Washington, DC in late November 2025.
- PM-602-0194, dated 1 January 2026, extended the hold to people from the countries in the January 2026 ban. Its footnote defines a hold as processing up to, but not including, a final decision. Family cases are no longer automatically exempt. The same footnote covers people who acquired citizenship by investment, a point taken up in a separate article.
Law firms report that a federal court in Rhode Island set both memos aside on 5 June 2026 and a federal court in California blocked them on 24 August 2026, and that USCIS said it would comply with both while disagreeing. They also report that an appeals court let only the re-review of past approvals continue while the appeal runs. These rulings are reported here as law firms describe them.
Canada. Canada designated the Iranian regime under its immigration law, making senior officials, including senior members of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, inadmissible. Open and already approved applications were reviewed. IRCC's briefing to a House of Commons committee, dated 30 April 2026, states that about 17,800 applications were reviewed and 239 visas cancelled. The measure targets regime officials, not Iranians in general.
Germany. The federal government has revoked or withdrawn admission commitments it had already issued under its admission programme for Afghans at risk. The Bundestag's press service states that, as of 7 April 2026, 66 cases covering 294 people had ended in revocation or withdrawal, and that courts had ruled both ways on challenges.
Northern Mariana Islands (United States). From 30 October 2026, the programme letting pre-screened Chinese nationals visit the islands for up to 14 days without a visa is suspended. Travel permits already granted are suspended too. People already on the islands under the programme may stay for their authorised period. The notice gives reasons including the risk of intelligence collection near defence sites, onward smuggling to Guam, birth tourism and organised-crime links.
A measure often mentioned that does not belong here
The UK's Foreign Influence Registration Scheme has placed Iran and Russia on its enhanced tier since 1 July 2025. It is often mentioned alongside visa measures. It does not touch visa or residence applicants: it is a registration duty triggered by acting at the direction of a specified foreign power, never by nationality, and it adds no step to any immigration application. (General information only.)
Who it reaches
Nationals of listed countries already living in the destination country with a pending or recently approved application. And, under the US January 2026 memo, people holding a citizenship bought through an investment programme.
What it tells you
This is analysis of a record, not a forecast. An entry ban looks like the harshest measure, but its texts kept visas already issued. The measures that reached people part-way through were administrative: holds that stopped files before a decision, and reviews that reopened files already approved. In the United States, those holds were then challenged in court.
What would show this wrong
A hold of this kind that survives the courts unchanged, or an entry ban that revokes visas already issued.
Sources
- US, Proclamation 10949: govinfo.gov ; Proclamation 10998: govinfo.gov
- USCIS PM-602-0192 (copy hosted by AILA): assets.aila.org ; PM-602-0194 (copy hosted by AILA): assets.aila.org
- Canada, IRCC briefing of 30 April 2026: canada.ca
- Germany, Bundestag press service: bundestag.de
- Northern Mariana Islands, Federal Register notice: govinfo.gov
- UK, Foreign Influence Registration Scheme, Iran: gov.uk
General information, not legal advice. UK rules are described for general information only.
