Getting a US Visa Now Depends on Your Weight

A new directive from the Trump administration instructs US visa officers to consider obesity and other chronic health conditions as grounds to deny foreigners entry to the country. The policy, detailed in a Nov. 6 cable sent by Secretary of State Marco Rubio to consulates worldwide, expands medical screening criteria beyond contagious diseases to include conditions such as heart disease, cancer, diabetes, and obesity. The guidance argues that these conditions could result in significant healthcare costs and therefore pose a potential financial burden to US taxpayers, per the Washington Post.

The cable, which was not reviewed through the usual channels involving career staff, gives consular officers broad discretion to reject both immigrant and nonimmigrant visa applicants based on a wide range of common medical issues, ranging from depression and anxiety to high blood pressure, the AP reports. It also advises officers to consider factors such as age, number of dependents, and whether applicants have family members with disabilities. White House officials say Trump is only "fully enforcing" a long-standing policy designed to prevent individuals likely to rely on publicly funded healthcare from entering the US.

However, critics note previous practice was to limit medical exclusions to cases likely to result in institutionalization at government expense. Now, consular officers have "wide discretion to deny both immigrant and nonimmigrant visas based on common health conditions that, by themselves, have never been treated as disqualifying," immigration lawyer Vic Goel tells the Post. "This could lead to a substantial narrowing of immigration," adds Julia Gelatt of the Migration Policy Institute, per the AP. The directive applies to most visa categories except certain humanitarian cases, though many such programs have been curtailed. According to the World Health Organization, 16% of adults globally were obese in 2022, and 14% had diabetes.