Kuwait and other Mena states hit by US visa freeze

• US halts visa processing for 75 nations
• Twelve Middle East countries affected
• Kuwait is sole GCC member targeted

Twelve Middle Eastern countries, including Kuwait, are among 75 nations for which the US State Department will indefinitely suspend processing of immigrant visas, starting from next week.

Applicants from Kuwait, Algeria, Egypt, Iran, Iraq, Jordan, Lebanon, Libya, Morocco, Syria, Tunisia and Yemen hoping to immigrate to the United States will not have their applications reviewed until more stringent protocols are in place, the State Department said in a statement on X on Wednesday.

Immigrant visas put recipients on a direct path to permanent residency and, eventually, US citizenship. Such documents generally span employment and investment-based visas for high-value foreigners, and entry visas for spouses or fiancés of US citizens. 

Kuwait is the sole GCC member state to be targeted, with the freeze otherwise impacting nearly all the Levant and North Africa.

The State Department justified the move by saying immigrants from the 75 countries have an outsized chance of needing public assistance once they settle in the US.

It did not provide further details or any breakdown of data or considerations that may have led to any one nation being put on the list.

In 2024 Kuwait’s per-capita gross domestic product, adjusted for purchasing power, was the world’s 51st highest at nearly $52,500, according to the World Bank, far above those of the other blacklisted nations, which include Afghanistan and Haiti. 

“Someone is going to have to explain to me how Kuwait ended up on a list of 75 countries now blocked from receiving visas to the US on the basis their citizens are likely to end up as public charges,” Kristin Smith Diwan, a senior resident scholar at the Arab Gulf States Institute, commented on X.

“I am so curious to understand how Kuwait – an oil-rich country where the average citizen income exceeds $60k a year – ended up on this list,” echoed Vivian Nereim, Gulf bureau chief at the New York Times.

The freeze, which comes into effect on January 21, does not affect processing of tourist, student, work and other non-immigrant visas and should not disrupt travel for those planning to visit the US for the Fifa World Cup this summer. 

The State Department and Kuwaiti Embassy in Washington did not immediately respond to requests for comment. 

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In 2024 the US issued 636 immigrant visas to applicants falling under the Kuwaiti quota, according to the State Department. 

This does not necessarily equal 636 Kuwaiti nationals as US officials tally visas based on “chargeability”, which typically uses an applicant’s country of birth, not citizenship, to identify its national origin for immigration purposes.

The State Department did not clarify on Wednesday whether the processing pause also followed the same logic, thereby impacting non-Kuwaiti prospective immigrants who may have been born in Kuwait.

There were nearly 6,200 recipients of US immigrant visas under the Egyptian quota in 2024, 4,700 under Morocco’s, 3,900 from Lebanon and about 2,600 from Syria.