Factors including an applicant’s health, age, financial resources, English-language ability and potential need for long-term medical care will determine settlement into the US.
The U.S. State Department has announced a temporary pause in immigrant visa processing for applicants from 75 countries, including Liberia, as it reviews and tightens enforcement of the “public charge” provision intended to prevent newcomers from becoming dependent on government benefits.
An internal State Department memo obtained by Fox News Digital instructs consular officers to deny visas under existing legal authority while the department updates screening and vetting standards. The suspension is set to take effect Jan. 21 and will remain in place indefinitely until the review is complete.
The move targets applicants the department believes are likely to rely on taxpayer-funded assistance.
“The State Department will use its long-standing authority to deny entry to individuals who are likely to become a public charge and take advantage of taxpayer-funded benefits,” State Department spokesperson Tommy Piggott said, adding that visa processing from the affected countries will remain paused while procedures are reassessed.
He said exceptions are expected to be rare and will be granted only after applicants successfully clear public-charge evaluations.
Liberia was singled out in public debate after a dataset reposted this month by President Donald Trump reported that 48.9% of Liberian immigrant households in the United States receive some form of public assistance.
With U.S. Census-based estimates placing the Liberian-born population at roughly 100,000, that figure would represent tens of thousands of people receiving government aid. The State Department did not cite that dataset in its memo.
Somalia has also drawn increased scrutiny following a major fraud investigation in Minnesota that prosecutors say involved widespread misuse of public assistance programs and implicated many Somali nationals or Somali Americans. Officials have pointed to cases such as that as part of the rationale for broader, more aggressive screening.
Under the updated guidance circulated to consular posts in November 2025, officers are instructed to weigh factors including an applicant’s health, age, financial resources, English-language ability and potential need for long-term medical care. The guidance signals heightened scrutiny for applicants who are older or have certain health conditions, or who previously received government cash assistance or were institutionalized.
The public charge standard has a long history in U.S. immigration law, but enforcement has varied by administration.
A 2022 iteration under then President Joe Biden narrowed the definition to focus primarily on cash assistance and long-term institutional care and explicitly excluded programs such as SNAP, WIC, Medicaid and housing assistance. The current review appears aimed at broadening how consular officers evaluate applicants’ likelihood of future dependence on public benefits.
The list of affected countries spans regions and includes Afghanistan, Brazil, Egypt, Iran, Iraq, Liberia, Nigeria, Russia, Somalia, Thailand, Yemen and dozens of others. State Department officials said the pause will apply across consular posts processing immigrant visas from those countries while the new screening protocols are finalized.
Advocates for immigrants and some Democratic lawmakers have criticized past uses of the public charge rule as overly punitive and harmful to legal immigrants with limited means.
The State Department has not released an implementation timeline or a detailed methodology for the new vetting criteria, leaving questions about how broadly the changes will be applied and who will qualify for exceptions.
Here is the complete list of countries:
The full list of countries comprises of Afghanistan, Albania, Algeria, Antigua and Barbuda, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Bahamas, Bangladesh, Barbados, Belarus, Belize, Bhutan, Bosnia, Brazil, Burma, Cambodia, Cameroon, Cape Verde, Colombia, Cote d’Ivoire, Cuba, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Dominica, Egypt, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Fiji, Gambia, Georgia, Ghana, Grenada, Guatemala, Guinea, Haiti, Iran, Iraq, Jamaica, Jordan, Kazakhstan, Kosovo, Kuwait, Kyrgyzstan, Laos, Lebanon, Liberia, Libya, Macedonia, Moldova, Mongolia, Montenegro, Morocco, Nepal, Nicaragua, Nigeria, Pakistan, Republic of the Congo, Russia, Rwanda, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Senegal, Sierra Leone, Somalia, South Sudan, Sudan, Syria, Tanzania, Thailand, Togo, Tunisia, Uganda, Uruguay, Uzbekistan and Yemen.
