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The United States has placed a temporary halt on Green Card and citizenship applications linked to Sierra Leoneans.
This action follows a new expansion of Washington’s immigration restrictions and affects several other countries recently added to a broader travel control policy.
The suspension targets legal immigration filings, including applications for permanent residency and naturalisation.
Many of those affected are Sierra Leoneans already living in the United States who were in the process of adjusting their status or applying to become citizens.
Under the new directive, immigration authorities have stopped processing petitions from nationals of countries covered by the latest travel restrictions.
This includes both full bans and partial entry limits, depending on the country involved.
The United States government has issued a full suspension on the entry of Sierra Leonean nationals, both immigrants and nonimmigrants, effective 1 January 2026.
The ban was announced in a presidential proclamation signed by President Donald J. Trump on 16 December 2025, which expanded existing travel restrictions to include several new countries. Other African countries impacted by the policy include Benin, Senegal, Ghana, Gambia, Zambia, Zimbabwe, and Côte d’Ivoire, among others.
The proclamation cites “woeful inadequacies” in Sierra Leone’s screening, vetting, and information-sharing capabilities as the primary reason. It specifically notes the country’s high visa overstay rates and a historical failure to accept back its nationals ordered removed from the United States.
According to data from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s 2024 Entry/Exit Overstay Report, Sierra Leone had a student and exchange visitor (F, M, and J) visa overstay rate of 35.83 percent, and a business and tourist (B-1/B-2) visa overstay rate of 16.48 percent.
The proclamation states that such deficiencies make it “extremely difficult for United States screening and vetting authorities to assess prior criminal activity and other grounds of inadmissibility,” posing a risk to national security and public safety.
The move is part of a wider immigration clampdown introduced in recent weeks. Authorities have also frozen asylum decisions and halted the processing of certain visa and immigration requests from specific nationalities.
US officials say the decision is linked to a security review of immigration systems.
According to the immigration agency, “USCIS is conducting a comprehensive review of anyone from anywhere who poses a threat to the US, including those identified in the President’s latest proclamation to restore law and order in our nation’s immigration system.”
Taken together, the latest policy changes affect a large portion of African countries and several nations in Asia and other regions. Analysts estimate that more than half of Africa is now impacted in one form or another.
The development has sparked strong reactions among Sierra Leoneans at home and abroad. Many have criticised the decision, describing it as unfair and damaging to long-standing diplomatic and people-to-people ties between Sierra Leone and the United States.
Concerns have also been raised about the economic and social impact of the suspension, especially for families separated by immigration delays and professionals whose careers depend on legal residency status.
