On Our Radar

The US

24 July 2026

On Our Radar this week: The US ends open-ended visas for foreign correspondents, with consequences that will be felt by newsrooms and audiences far beyond America’s borders. 

On Our Radar this week…

PMA is disappointed, if unsurprised, by the decision from the US Department of Homeland Security to end the “duration of status” system that has allowed foreign correspondents holding I visas to remain in the United States for as long as their assignment lasted. Instead, it will be replaced with a fixed 240-day limit, and just 90 days for journalists holding Chinese passports. Published on 17 July and due to take effect on 15 September, the rule dismantles a framework that has underpinned international reporting on the US for decades, and does so despite sustained warnings from press freedom and media organisations, including PMA, which joined more than 100 outlets and journalists’ bodies last September in urging the administration to withdraw the proposal. 

As we noted when this proposal first emerged in 2020, foreign correspondents bring language skills, cultural fluency, as well as independent and different perspectives from domestically based reporters. It is this sustained, on-the-ground presence – built over years, not weeks – that allows public service media to explain America accurately to their own publics, rather than relying on secondhand, or state-mediated accounts, or via observations from afar. Correspondents from PMA’s member organisations, several of whom maintain long-standing US bureaus, will now face renewal cycles governed by the fixed 240-day limit, each time, involving a fresh DHS review. We are concerned that this instability will fall hardest on smaller public broadcasters with the least capacity to absorb the cost and logistics of such a process, which in turn could impact the depth and continuity of reporting their audiences receive. 

It also sets a precedent that governments hostile to press freedom elsewhere may now feel emboldened to replicate. The clearest immediate risk is to the journalists and their ability to report critically without fear of reprisal. There is a fear that these short-term visa renewals could be used as a method to pressure correspondents into self-censorship. This carries implications for press freedom and freedom of expression that extend well beyond America’s borders. There is also a personal cost: such correspondents aren’t just parachuted in. They build a home, often with families, in the US. The continual uncertainty over their status in the US will have a major impact on their and their families’ lives. 

PMA will continue to monitor the rule’s impact on its members as the September deadline approaches. 

⇒ Read more via CPJ. 

PMA Advocacy Team