US Immigrant Visa Pause and Guatemalans: What Is Paused, What Is Not (2026)

This page is general information, not legal advice. It reports what the US government published. For your own case, consult a licensed US immigration attorney, and for consular questions, contact your own Guatemalan consulate.

Checked July 21, 2026 — here is exactly what we could and could not read. travel.state.gov blocks automated access, so the State Department wording quoted on this page was read from Internet Archive captures of the Department’s own pages: July 14, 2026 for the immigrant visa pause notice, and July 9, 2026 for Proclamation 10998. Both captures still carried the operative language, with no repeal or expiry text. We did not read either notice live on July 21 — only the litigation status was checked that day. US immigration policy can change without notice, and it may have changed since those captures — open the State Department notice yourself (linked at the bottom of this page) before acting on anything here.

If you are Guatemalan and living in the United States, or you have family waiting in Guatemala, you have probably heard some version of “there is a visa ban on Guatemala.” Three different US policies are being mixed together in that sentence, and only one of them applies to Guatemalans. This page separates them and states plainly what is paused, what is not, and what still happens on schedule.

Quick summary: The US State Department paused immigrant visa issuance for nationals of 75 countries, including Guatemala, effective January 21, 2026. Applications and interviews continue and are still being scheduled. Tourist and other nonimmigrant visas are not affected. No immigrant visas were revoked under this guidance. Dual nationals applying on a valid passport from a country not on the list are exempt, and children being adopted by Americans can qualify for an exception. No end date has been published, and the plaintiffs challenging the policy report no injunction or ruling as of July 21, 2026. Guatemala is not on the Proclamation 10998 “travel ban” lists and has no TPS designation.

What is paused — and what is not

The scope word that matters is issuance. The notice pauses the act of issuing the immigrant visa. It does not, in its own text, stop you from filing or from being interviewed.

The three policies people are mixing up

This is where most of the fear comes from. These are three separate things, from two different US agencies:

On the 75-country pause. The State Department states the reason as a “full review of all screening and vetting policies to ensure that immigrants from high-risk countries do not unlawfully utilize welfare in the United States or become a public charge.” Guatemala is on that list.

On Proclamation 10998. It was signed December 16, 2025, modifying Proclamation 10949, and took effect January 1, 2026 at 12:01 a.m. EST. The fully suspended list is Afghanistan, Burma, Burkina Faso, Chad, Republic of the Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Haiti, Iran, Laos, Libya, Mali, Niger, Sierra Leone, Somalia, South Sudan, Sudan, Syria and Yemen, plus Palestinian Authority travel documents. The partially suspended list is Angola, Antigua and Barbuda, Benin, Burundi, Côte d’Ivoire, Cuba, Dominica, Gabon, The Gambia, Malawi, Mauritania, Nigeria, Senegal, Tanzania, Togo, Tonga, Venezuela, Zambia and Zimbabwe. Guatemala appears on neither. The proclamation also carries its own scope limiter: it “only applies to foreign nationals who are outside the United States on the effective date AND do not hold a valid visa on the effective date,” and “No visas issued before January 1, 2026 … have been or will be revoked pursuant to the Proclamation.”

On TPS. Guatemala has no TPS designation at all. TPS news you see about other Central American countries does not change anything for Guatemalans.

Interviews and applications continue

This is the single most misunderstood point, so here is the Department’s own answer to “What happens to my immigrant visa interview appointment?” in full:

“Immigrant visa applicants who are nationals of affected countries may submit visa applications and attend interviews, and the Department will continue to schedule visa interviews.”

Read that literally, and note its limit: applications and interviews continue, but issuance — the final step — is what is paused, so attending an interview does not mean a visa will be issued at the end of it. If you have an interview appointment, the notice does not tell you to skip it. Talk to your attorney about your specific case before missing any appointment.

The exceptions the notice names

Dual nationals

“Dual nationals applying with a valid passport of a country that is not listed above are exempt from this pause.”

This is one of only two exceptions the notice names (the other covers adoptions), and it applies only if a second nationality already exists, and only if that second country is not itself on the 75-country list (several Latin American and Caribbean countries are on it, so check the list below before assuming). If you hold or may be entitled to a second nationality, see our page on US–Guatemalan dual nationality for how dual status works, and take the question of which passport to apply with to a licensed immigration attorney.

Children being adopted by Americans

“Children being adopted by Americans can qualify for an exception, including a National Interest Exception pursuant to Presidential Proclamation 10998, if applicable… They do not need to take other additional steps to be considered for a case-by-case exception under the National Interest Exception.”

Be careful about what that exception does and does not do. It addresses visa issuance for a child already in an adoption process; it does not reopen the Guatemala–US adoption route, which the State Department’s own Guatemala adoption page says is not currently possible. If that is your situation, the closure, its 2007 date and the routes the Consejo Nacional de Adopciones does still run are set out in can Americans adopt from Guatemala.

Visas already issued

“No immigrant visas have been revoked as part of this guidance. For questions regarding admission to the United States, we refer you to DHS.”

Two things follow. First, a visa in your passport was not cancelled by this notice. Second, questions about admission — what happens at the port of entry — are Department of Homeland Security territory, and the State Department explicitly redirects them there.

How long does the pause last?

There is no published end date. The notice carries none, and as of the July 2026 verification the pause language was still on the page with no repeal or expiry text. Anyone telling you a specific end date is not reading it from the notice.

The lawsuit: filed, not decided

A legal challenge to the 75-country pause exists. The following case facts come from the Center for Constitutional Rights, which is a party to the case, in its own published question-and-answer about the lawsuit — an advocacy source, used here only for facts about the case and never for what the policy says:

• It was filed by two organizations plus 11 individuals, and it is not a class action.
• The plaintiffs ask the court to declare the policies unlawful, vacate them, block enforcement, and order the State Department back to individualized, case-by-case adjudication.
• By the plaintiffs’ own description, the case does not cover the Proclamation 10998 list, the diversity visa pause effective December 23, 2025, or suspensions of other visa categories.

The Center for Constitutional Rights, itself a party to the case, reports no injunction or ruling as of July 21, 2026 — so on the record available to us, nothing has suspended the pause. A lawsuit being filed changes nothing about what consulates are doing today. Do not make plans on the assumption that it will be blocked.

What to do next

1. Read the primary notice yourself, not a summary of it — including this one. The link is at the bottom of this page, and it is the only text that governs.
2. Do not skip appointments on your own. The notice says interviews continue. Confirm your specific case with your attorney before missing anything.
3. Talk to a licensed US immigration attorney — not a “notario” or a non-attorney consultant. Case-specific questions, including anything about which passport to apply with as a dual national, need a licensed professional.
4. Ask your own consulate about consular matters. Find your Guatemalan consulate by US state, or start at the consulate services hub.
5. Keep your Guatemalan documents current while you wait. Practical guides: renew your Guatemalan passport from the USA, apostille US documents for use in Guatemala, and grant a consular power of attorney if you need someone in Guatemala to act for you.
6. Re-check the State Department notice before every decision point. It can change without warning.

For the wider US-side picture, MigrantUSA’s immigration policy tracker follows the active US immigration policy changes and court challenges — including the family of proclamations this pause belongs to — in plain language.

One boundary worth stating clearly: this notice is a Department of State action about immigrant visa issuance at US embassies and consulates abroad. If your question concerns a process handled by a different US agency, this page cannot answer it — that is a question for your attorney.

The 75 countries on the State Department list

Useful if your family is mixed-nationality, or if you are checking whether a second passport would qualify for the dual-national exemption:

Afghanistan, Albania, Algeria, Antigua and Barbuda, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Bahamas, Bangladesh, Barbados, Belarus, Belize, Bhutan, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Brazil, Burma, Cambodia, Cameroon, Cape Verde, Colombia, Côte d’Ivoire, Cuba, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Dominica, Egypt, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Fiji, The Gambia, Georgia, Ghana, Grenada, Guatemala, Guinea, Haiti, Iran, Iraq, Jamaica, Jordan, Kazakhstan, Kosovo, Kuwait, Kyrgyz Republic, Laos, Lebanon, Liberia, Libya, Moldova, Mongolia, Montenegro, Morocco, Nepal, Nicaragua, Nigeria, North Macedonia, Pakistan, Republic of the Congo, Russia, Rwanda, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Senegal, Sierra Leone, Somalia, South Sudan, Sudan, Syria, Tanzania, Thailand, Togo, Tunisia, Uganda, Uruguay, Uzbekistan, Yemen.

Primary sources

• US Department of State — Immigrant Visa Processing Updates for Nationalities at High Risk of U.S. Public Benefits Reliance (the 75-country pause, effective January 21, 2026)
• US Department of State — Suspension of Visa Issuance to Foreign Nationals to Protect the Security of the United States (Presidential Proclamation 10998, effective January 1, 2026 — Guatemala not listed)
• USCIS — Temporary Protected Status (list of currently designated countries — Guatemala not designated, checked July 21, 2026)

More for Guatemalans in the United States: diaspora services hub · TPS status for Guatemalans · dual nationality