Liberia has been placed on a new U.S. visa suspension list, joining several other countries as the United States moves to tighten visa screening and vetting procedures.
By Gerald C. Koinyeneh
According to Fox News, a U.S. State Department memo directs consular officers to refuse visas under existing law while the department reassesses immigrant visa processing protocols.
Other countries on the list include Somalia, Russia, Afghanistan, Brazil, Iran, Iraq, Egypt, Nigeria, Thailand and Yemen, among others.
The visa pause is set to begin on January 21 and will continue indefinitely until the reassessment of immigrant visa procedures is complete.
Somalia has faced heightened scrutiny from U.S. officials following a major fraud scandal in Minnesota, where prosecutors uncovered extensive abuse of taxpayer-funded benefit programs involving many Somali nationals or Somali-Americans.
In November 2025, the State Department issued a cable to posts worldwide instructing consular officers to enforce expanded screening under the “public charge” provision of immigration law.
Liberia’s inclusion on the suspension list comes as a surprise, as the country had not appeared on previous lists. The government of Liberia had not issued a statement on the matter at the time of publication.
