Photo: via Wikimedia Commons (CC0). File photo of US passport visa pages, not a photo of any individual whose visa was revoked.
The United States has revoked more than 300,000 visas under Secretary of State Marco Rubio, the State Department said, calling it the highest number of visa revocations in American history as the Trump administration presses ahead with an unprecedented review of foreign nationals holding US visas.
The figures were released in a series of posts on the department's official X account late on Saturday, and reported on Sunday, November 1. The total marks a sharp acceleration: in an update in August, the department had put the number of revocations since President Donald Trump's current term began in January 2025 at more than 175,000.
Why the visas were revoked
According to the department, the vast majority of the revocations were due to criminal activity, public safety concerns, immigration violations, fraud or misrepresentation, or other information indicating that the individual was no longer eligible for a visa. State Department spokesperson Tommy Pigott said the administration has revoked more visas, and at a faster pace, than any previous one.
The department also disclosed that more than 4,000 visas have been revoked for birth tourism alone — the practice of travelling to the United States to give birth so that a child acquires American citizenship. Among those, more than 700 belonged to Chinese nationals, the only country-specific breakdown the department provided.
The vetting machine behind the numbers
A central part of the crackdown is the Continuous Vetting Center, set up in Washington, DC, in 2025 under the Bureau of Consular Affairs. The department said the center alone has revoked more than 23,000 visas. Of the cases it handled, 25 percent involved assault and related crimes, 22 percent involved driving under the influence, and 7 percent each involved theft and substance abuse or distribution.
The review covers people who already hold visas, not just new applicants — a significant expansion of vetting that has alarmed universities, employers and immigrant advocates, who say students and skilled workers can lose their status over offences that would not previously have triggered revocation. The department has not published a full breakdown of the broader 300,000 total by visa category or nationality, so it is not possible to say how many of those affected were students, workers, tourists or others.
What it means days before the midterms
The announcement lands two days before Americans vote in the midterm elections on Tuesday, November 3, in which immigration remains one of the defining issues of Trump's second term. The administration has framed the revocations as a public-safety achievement; critics argue that revoking visas at this scale, without detailed public data on who is affected and why, risks sweeping up people whose cases have little to do with serious crime.
For visa holders, the practical message is stark: a visa once granted is no longer a settled status. Continuous vetting means it can be withdrawn at any point if new information emerges — and with the total now past 300,000 and still rising, the review shows no sign of slowing.
Sources: Indian Express, November 1, 2026; IANS, November 1, 2026; US State Department posts on X, November 1, 2026. The revocation figures and reasons are as stated by the State Department; the department has not released a full breakdown by category or nationality.