‘All visa applicants continuously vetted’: U.S. State Department on visa revocation reports

U.S. State Department revokes visas for Indian students involved in campus activism, citing eligibility concerns and security vetting.

Reacting to news reports that “hundreds” of Indian citizens in the U.S. had received visa revocation emails for campus activism and been told to “self deport” towards the end of last week, the U.S. State Department said it routinely invoked its authority to revoke visas when information came to light suggesting a visa holder had become ineligible to continue holding the visa.

The State Department declined to confirm the specific news reports, citing privacy reasons. It also could not confirm the number of revocations as the process was ongoing.

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“The Department generally does not provide statistics on visa revocations,” a State Department spokesperson told The Hindu over the weekend, in response to a set of questions sent to them via email.

A number of students in the U.S., including Indian citizens, have had their visas revoked. Some have been detained after the U.S. government had accused them of participating in pro-Palestine campus protests or for having sympathies with – and, in some cases, links to - militant group Hamas.

“Every prospective traveler to the United States undergoes extensive interagency security vetting. All visa applicants, no matter the visa type and where they are located, are continuously vetted,” the spokesperson said.

Security vetting runs from the time an application is made all the way through the validity of the visa to ensure eligibility to travel to the U.S., they said, adding that the State Department invokes its authority to revoke visas when “information comes to light indicating that a visa holder may be no longer be eligible for a visa”.