A U.S. federal judge has struck down a Trump administration policy that suspended the processing of immigrant visas for nationals of 75 countries, ruling that the measure was “patently unlawful” and exceeded the statutory authority of Secretary of State Marco Rubio.

U.S. District Judge Jeannette Vargas, sitting in Manhattan, set aside the policy on Friday, finding that the State Department had unlawfully imposed a blanket nationality-based restriction on immigrant visa issuance.

The policy had been introduced in January and took effect on Jan. 21, 2026.

The State Department had justified the suspension on the grounds that applicants from the designated countries were considered at high risk of becoming a “public charge” and relying on U.S. government assistance.

Judge Vargas, however, said the policy improperly transferred decisions that Congress had entrusted to individual consular officers and conflicted with the framework of U.S. immigration law.

Reports say that the judge found the policy categorically prohibited eligible applicants from receiving immigrant visas based solely on their nationality.

The ruling followed a lawsuit brought by immigrant-rights organisations, including the Catholic Legal Immigration Network and African Communities Together, together with affected visa applicants and U.S. citizens sponsoring relatives.

The 75-country list included 24 African countries, according to the U.S. State Department’s published list – among them Nigeria, Ghana, Tanzania, Rwanda, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Cameroon, Côte d’Ivoire, Egypt, Ethiopia, Liberia, Senegal, Sierra Leone, Somalia, South Sudan, Sudan, Togo and Uganda.

The ruling is therefore significant for African families seeking to reunite with relatives in the United States, as well as employment-based immigrant visa applicants whose cases were frozen under the policy.

Zambia, however, was not among the 75 countries covered by this particular public-charge immigrant-visa suspension. The official State Department list does not include Zambia.

Zambia was nevertheless subject to a separate U.S. visa restriction.

Under Presidential Proclamation 10998, which took effect on Jan. 1, 2026, the United States partially suspended visa issuance to Zambian nationals for B-1/B-2 visitor visas, F, M and J visas, as well as immigrant visas, subject to specified exceptions.

The same measure applied to a number of other African countries.