The US Embassy in London is preventing top corporate executives from traveling to the country for minor crimes, as US President Donald Trump's anti-immigration campaign spreads to the UK, the Financial Times reported today.
People who want to travel to the US on a tourist or business visa but have police warnings or minor offenses on their records – some dating back as far as the 1970s – are often denied visas, immigration lawyers and visa consultants say.
Lawyers say top corporate figures and technology industry leaders are among those being denied visas based on minor, long-standing offenses such as cannabis use, bar brawls or drunk driving.
Some of those whose visas were denied were arrested but not convicted.
All of this shows the extent to which the American anti-immigration campaign has reached.
The embassy in London denies visas under the so-called 214b rule, a blanket category that allows consular officers to deny travel to the US to a person who has “not sufficiently demonstrated that he or she qualifies for a visa” – without providing a reason.
Some clients have not received visas despite previous indications that they would, lawyers say.
This approach began to be implemented last summer, after US Secretary of State Marco Rubio launched a "catch and revoke" policy, under which visas are denied to any foreigner caught breaking the law.
Such rejections were far less common before Donald Trump took office for the second time, in January last year.
London is the largest U.S. visa processing center in Europe, issuing 150.000 nonimmigrant visas there in 2024, according to the latest data from the U.S. State Department.
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