Us visa policy: The US Donald Trump government has announced a major change in the visa policy. US Secretary of State Marco Rubio has recently made a announcement that can give a new twist to the Global Digital Policy. From now on, if a foreign national in the US pressures American tech companies (Facebook, Twitter) to sensor the social media comments of Americans, then the person’s visa will be banned.

On the matter, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said that if foreign nationals threaten arrest or punitive action against the comments made on any post in America, it will not be considered. If foreign government or officer demands censorship on the post done by American citizens on American social media platforms, then they will not be given a US visa.

What does the new American policy say?
According to the new American policy, freedom of expression has been considered one of America’s fundamental rights. Because of this, if any foreign officer pressures American social media firms to remove or revise the content, then it will also be the basis of visa ban. Foreign judicial action or arrest warrant will be interfered for their online statements on American citizens.

Which countries can affect?
Although no particular country was named in this statement, in recent years the European Union, Australia, Brazil, India and many Asian countries have imposed fine, notices and restrictions against social media platforms. In countries like India, when legal action is taken on political or religious comments on Twitter or Facebook and it will be found related to American citizens, in such a situation they may be prohibited from coming to America.

Global impact of American social media platform
America is owned by many social media platform firms in the world, including Meta (Mark Zuckerberg), X (Twitter) – Alan Musk, YouTube – Google. These platforms are the basis of the exchange of most digital things in the world. For this reason, the policy or legal order of any one country has a direct impact in America.

Us visa bulletin: Due to the immigration policy of US President Donald Trump, thousands of Indians are seen wandering on the dreams of being American. Recently, the US State Department has released its visa bulletin for May 2025, which has brought even more bad news for the Indian H-1B and green card candidates. In this, a significant decline in the class-based fifth priority (EB-5) category for Indians has been shown.

According to the documents, the EB-5 unreserved category visa for Indians will move back more than six months to May 1, 2019. On the other hand, China remains on January 22, 2014. Bulletin states, “EB-5 in unreserved visa categories due to the use of high demand and number from India, as well as increasing demand and number of use in the rest of the world, it has become necessary to further back to the final action date from India to keep the use of the number under the annual limit of FY 2025 within the annual limit of FY 2025.”

What does the new visa bulletin say for the second category?

There has been no change in employment-based, first preference (EB-1) category. The cutoff date for India remains on February 2, 2022. At the same time, this date for China is November 8, 2022. Along with this, other countries will also remain in this category.

There has been no change in the EB-2 category for Indians and Chinese citizens in the employment-based, second preference (EB-2) category. The cutoff date for India will remain January 1, 2013, while for China it will remain October 1, 2020. The EB2 cutoff date for all other countries will remain June 22, 2023.

India’s cutoff date has moved two weeks to 15 April 2013 in employment-based, third preference (EB-3) category, while China’s cutoff remains on 1 November, 2020. The cutoff date of other countries remains on January 1, 2023.

EB-3 other workers: EB-3 for Indians in other labor category, the cutoff date matches the EB-3 category from April 15, 2013. April 1, 2017 for China, while for all other countries is 22 May, 2021.

What does a visa withdrawal mean?

The US State Department releases a visa bulletin every month, listed for the cut-off date of visa availability for different nationalities. This determines which applicants are eligible to submit their application for adjustment of visa status or are eligible for permanent residence. Applicants with priority date before the date of cut-off in the latest bulletin are usually eligible to apply for permanent residence.

Visa withdrawal is when more people apply for a visa available for a visa in a particular category or country. Recovery usually occurs at the end of the financial year when issuing visas reaches the annual category or per-country boundaries.

Also read: H-1B visa and green card, even then this paper will always have to be kept together, Trump administration changed the rules for Indians