US visa clamp sparks panic but Thai students gets pass
United States embassy reassures students after memo leaves scholars in limbo
Thai students hoping to hit the books in the United States can breathe a sigh of relief, after officials confirmed student visa interviews in Bangkok are still a go, despite a sweeping clampdown ordered by US President Donald Trump’s team.
On April 1, US political news outlet Politico dropped a bombshell: a leaked Trump-era memo revealed that US embassies worldwide had been told to stop adding new student visa appointments amid a planned expansion of social media vetting.
The memo read: “Effective immediately… consular sections should not add any additional student or exchange visitor (F, M, and J) visa appointment capacity until further guidance is issued.”
Cue panic. Thai students and their parents, many of whom had just bagged coveted university offers, feared their dreams of studying Stateside might be flushed faster than a frat house toilet. But the US Embassy in Bangkok moved to calm the storm.
“Student and exchange programme visa applicants may continue to apply and they need to be fully truthful in their applications when they do so. No previously scheduled appointments have been cancelled.”
Those without appointments have been told to keep an eye out for new slots as embassy staff continue to juggle schedules to handle the extra screening, reported Bangkok Post.
Background: Trump’s visa vendetta
This visa chaos stems from Trump’s hardline immigration crusade during his presidency. Amid fears of foreign influence, security risks and a deep distrust of international academia, his administration ramped up scrutiny of foreign students, even threatening to revoke visas mid-pandemic for students attending online-only classes.
The policy memo leaked by Politico in 2020 was part of a broader push to expand vetting, especially of applicants’ social media activity.
Critics blasted the move as discriminatory, overly invasive, and harmful to America’s soft power, particularly as prestigious institutions like Harvard and MIT raised the alarm over dwindling foreign enrolments.
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