It said that in every case “we will take the time necessary to ensure an applicant does not pose a risk to the safety and security of the United States” and that “we adjudicate each visa application on a case-by-case basis after rigorous review and thorough vetting to determine whether the individual is eligible under US law”.
The Department of Homeland Security is concerned about people remaining in the country after visas have expired and says there were more than 538,000 “overstay events” between October 2023 and September 2024. The Pew Research Center estimates that in 2023, before President Trump’s crackdown on undocumented migrants, there were 14 million immigrants living illegally in the US.
Countries that hosted the last four World Cups set up special visa systems for fans, although approval for travel documents was still not guaranteed.
Canada and Mexico are joint hosts of the tournament, but 78 of the 104 matches, including the final, will be played in cities across the US.
Canada and Mexico’s own immigration and visa schemes differ from those in the US. Neither have issued travel bans for specific countries, although Canada, like the US, has recently put entry restrictions on countries affected by the recent Ebola outbreak in Africa, which includes World Cup qualifiers Democratic Republic of the Congo.
Canada requires people to submit biometric data for visa applications and there are two countries that qualified for the World Cup, Iran and Cape Verde, where Canada does not have any facilities where people can be scanned.
Canada does not break down visa refusal rates by visa type or country but it’s overall rate for 2025 was 54%.
Mexico does not publish visa refusal data. It requires applicants to apply in-person at an embassy or consulate. Of the countries that qualified for the World Cup there are eight – Cape Verde, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Ivory Coast, Senegal, Uzbekistan, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Tunisia and Iraq – where Mexico does not have a diplomatic presence for people to go to. BBC