US restricts sports visas for transgender women as Trump government’s crackdown on immigration continues; check key policy update here

The U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) announced on Monday (August 4, 2025) that it has updated its immigration policy to restrict visa eligibility for transgender women seeking to compete in women’s sports. The latest development comes in alignment with the US President Donald Trump’s administration’s broader efforts to regulate transgender participation in athletics and follows similar policies enacted at the state level across the country.

What are the new rules in the latest immigration policy update

Under the policy update, USCIS will consider “the fact that a male athlete has been competing against women” as a negative factor when evaluating visa petitions in categories such as O-1A for extraordinary ability, EB-1 and EB-2 green cards for highly skilled workers, and national interest waivers.”USCIS is closing the loophole for foreign male athletes whose only chance at winning elite sports is to change their gender identity and leverage their biological advantages against women,” said USCIS spokesperson Matthew Tragesser, as quoted by news agency Reuters. “It’s a matter of safety, fairness, respect, and truth that only female athletes receive a visa to come to the U.S. to participate in women’s sports.”

The United States Olympic & Paralympic Committee updated its policy in July 2025 to align with an executive order signed earlier this year by Trump barring transgender women from competing in women’s sports.

Trump signed the “Keeping Men Out of Women’s Sports” order in February 2025, a directive that supporters said would restore fairness, but critics argue infringes on the rights of a tiny minority of athletes.