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When a 7.7-magnitude earthquake struck on March 28 in Mandalay, the second-largest city in Myanmar, 20-year-old Kyi Noo Khin watched the walls of her family home crack and crumble. For a moment, she thought she might lose everything.

In June, while still recovering from the aftermath of the quake, another kind of shock struck her.

“It was unexpected, honestly,” Noo Khin said of the Trump administration’s ban on visas from 12 countries, including Myanmar. “I was waiting for my visa interview appointment when the announcement came out.” 

In December 2024, Noo Khin was accepted by Kenyon College in Ohio through early decision, a process that allows high school students to apply to a college early, and if accepted, serves as a binding commitment to attend. She was overjoyed that she was accepted and had already applied for a student visa when she heard the news from the Trump administration. Now, her years of study and thousands of dollars invested in U.S. college applications, standardized tests, school deposit and visa fees, and other costs all seem wasted.

“All I needed was visa approval; only one final step left,” she said in an email interview with Prism, describing the emotional damage caused by the ban. 

“One moment I was dreaming about how I’m gonna decorate my college dorm room, then next, I was staring at my messy room—still haven’t cleaned the dribbles and dust resulting from the earthquake that took place on March 28—just feeling numb, after hearing the news about the visa ban,” she said. “Like everyone else affected by the earthquake, the family was devastated. In those dark moments, my secured position to go to the States in August had been a good thing we could still look forward to.” 

After the Trump administration’s June 9 announcement, Myanmar’s U.S. Embassy posted a statement on its website warning nationals from newly banned countries that while they could still submit visa applications and attend scheduled interviews, “they may be determined to be ineligible for visa issuance or admission to the United States.”

For Noo Khin, the ban didn’t just close a border—it slammed shut a door she spent years trying to open. 

Myanmar is still reeling from a 2021 military coup that overthrew the country’s democratically elected government and ignited an ongoing civil war. The U.S. visa ban adds yet another burden to a country already on its knees as pro-democracy fighters attempt to wrest control from the military-installed provisional government, led by Min Aung Hlaing.

Su Chit, director and founder of Royal Suchit, a Yangon-based college consulting firm, told Prism that the demand for student visas surged after the coup, overwhelming the U.S. Embassy in Myanmar and creating monthslong waitlists for interviews—waitlists that now lead to nowhere.

Severed lifeline 

Trump’s Proclamation 10949 is an expansive visa ban affecting Afghanistan, Chad, Republic of the Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Haiti, Iran, Libya, Myanmar, Somalia, Sudan, and Yemen, with Burundi, Cuba, Laos, Sierra Leone, Togo, Turkmenistan, and Venezuela facing partial visa restrictions. The executive order also suspended most categories of immigrant and nonimmigrant visas for citizens of these nations.

Among them, Myanmar stands out—not for national security concerns or geopolitical aggression, but for alleged administrative noncompliance. 

The White House cited high visa overstay rates and noncooperation with deportations as justification for including Myanmar on the list of banned countries. However, before the ban, students from Myanmar applying for U.S. visas underwent rigorous interviews at the U.S. Embassy to demonstrate their financial resources, academic readiness, and intent to return home. Applicants were also required to provide bank statements, financial affidavits, and property deeds to show that they could afford tuition and living expenses. They also had to prove English-language proficiency and strong academic credentials.

The Trump administration’s ban sent ripples through Myanmar communities in the U.S. and abroad, and has drawn criticism for its humanitarian impact.

According to recent data, 3,744 Myanmar students are enrolled in U.S. institutions for the 2025-2026 academic year—a small number compared to other countries, but a sharp increase from 2020-2021 when just 1,698 Myanmar students were enrolled in American colleges. Effectively, the Trump administration’s ban prohibits Myanmar students from studying abroad in the U.S. Meanwhile, the country’s education system remains crippled by decades of military misrule. National exams are unreliable, university degrees carry little value, and since the 2021 coup, the situation in Myanmar has only worsened. 

The junta has bombed schools, killed students, and imposed mandatory military conscription. There are also widespread reports of the military detaining young people in the streets and releasing them only after their families pay hefty bribes.

Noo Khin told Prism that the country’s political landscape and new conscription law are among the primary reasons she pursued her education overseas. 

“Many youths have to leave to avoid being forcefully drafted to serve or to get killed for the betterment of the military junta,” she said. “When the perfect plan has failed at the last moment, it becomes more difficult to plan from scratch with the current political situation.”

Unlike Trump’s 2017 “Muslim ban,” which drew global rebuke for being discriminatory, the latest visa ban appears to be engineered to withstand legal scrutiny. 

According to immigration attorney Helen Partlow, the ban “leans more heavily on administrative factors like visa overstays and deportation cooperation, rather than direct allegations of terrorism or religious bias, making it harder to challenge in court.”

“It is unlikely that these visa restrictions will be reversed during President Trump’s administration, especially if his first term in office is any indication. During his first travel ban in 2017, he faced immediate legal challenges and public backlash. But since then, the administration has doubled down,” Partlow said in an email.

Indeed, the Immigration and Nationality Act gives the president wide authority to restrict the entry of noncitizens deemed “detrimental to the interests of the United States.” This authority was upheld by the U.S. Supreme Court in the 2018 decision Trump v. Hawaii, giving future administrations a powerful tool for sweeping immigration controls.

Across the Myanmar diaspora in the U.S., many feel the Trump administration’s approach betrays Washington’s stated commitment to supporting democracy in Myanmar.

“This ban is unjust and unsympathetic,” Steven Sanyu, a community leader in Buffalo, New York, said in text messages in Burmese. “Since the 2021 military coup, people in Myanmar have been living in terror, with killings and arrests happening daily. If the U.S. wants to be tough, it should target the generals and their cronies—not ordinary people trying to survive.”

In Myanmar’s political landscape, studying abroad is not just a luxury for youth; it’s a lifeline. According to Chit, after the 2021 military coup, a surge in visa applications made securing a visa interview appointment incredibly difficult. Now, that process is effectively meaningless. An Al Jazeera report from 2021 found that the number of student visas approved for Myanmar nationals increased more than tenfold from February to July 2021, with 652 approved in 2021 versus 64 in 2020. 

Manmade misery 

Despite Myanmar’s economic collapse and unstable currency, Noo Khin’s family invested heavily in her education—$6,000 in tuition and related costs alone—for her to join the Pre-Collegiate Program of Yangon (PCP), a 12-month liberal arts college preparatory course that helps students apply to international universities.

“As a child from a working middle-class background with only one breadwinner, my dad, we could still afford the family’s basic necessities,” Noo Khin explained, “yet I knew that the cost of attending PCP alone held nearly half of my dad’s monthly salary as a division sales manager in a company.”

To reduce expenses for applying to U.S colleges and taking standardized tests, Noo Khin applied for every scholarship and free resource she could find. The PCP helped cover her language education and interview fees associated with meeting admissions officers. She also received a full scholarship for English language proficiency classes.

Still, Noo Khin estimated that she and her family have spent between $12,000 and $14,000 to pursue her dream of studying in the U.S.

Ei Hlaing, an assistant professor of psychology at the University of Lynchburg who also serves as co-director of PCP, said students from the most recent cohort who received admissions and scholarships lost their opportunities to attend college in the U.S. due to the visa ban. She noted that the timing could not have been worse because university application deadlines had already passed when the ban was announced.

“Emotionally, they felt crushed,” Hlaing said in an email. “They worked so hard to receive those scholarships. They revised their personal statements numerous times. They were so happy when they got admission to their dream schools in the U.S. with generous financial support. All of that got yanked away from them overnight.”

The professor explained that students now need to spend at least an additional six months in Myanmar to complete a foundation program, or prep course, for U.K. universities, or a foundation year in the U.K. or Malaysia, which adds an additional year to the start of an undergraduate course, with additional costs ranging from $5,000 to $25,000.

Noo Khin was dedicated to attending an American college; now she finds her options incredibly limited. Student visa requirements vary by country, and she doesn’t meet the educational requirements to apply to universities beyond the U.S. She said it feels like she’s “being doomed.” 

Now they’ve been told their dreams are over, not because they did something wrong—but because of where they were born.

Su Chit, director and founder of Royal Suchit

Chit told Prism that the students she works with at her college consulting firm have studied for years, aced their exams, and secured college admissions in the U.S., requiring their parents to sacrifice everything.

“Now they’ve been told their dreams are over, not because they did something wrong—but because of where they were born,” Chit said in text messages in Burmese. 

Equally devastating are those who were selected for the Diversity Immigrant Visa lottery. The State Department program grants up to 55,000 immigrant visas each year to people randomly chosen from countries with historically low immigration rates to the U.S. In some cases, people from the countries now barred from entering the U.S. had already been issued visas when Trump’s ban was announced.

Chit said many of these people already sold their homes or took out large loans to cover the costs of flights and the medical checks required for migration to the U.S. Now, they are stuck in limbo.

For ordinary Myanmar citizens, getting a U.S. visa has always felt like winning the lottery: rare, difficult, and life-changing. It has also represented freedom, safety, and a path out of a country where the ruling military regime bombs its own people.

On social media, frustration over the visa ban has boiled for months. Some direct their anger at earlier visa holders who overstayed or sought asylum, accusing them of contributing to the statistics now used to justify the ban.

But immigration attorneys say this resentment is misplaced. Applying for asylum is a right enshrined in U.S. and international law, and it is systemic failures and the Trump administration’s anti-immigrant agenda—not individual actions—that account for today’s conditions.

“The blame is squarely on the Trump administration for invoking a completely unnecessary, unjustified ban,” said immigration attorney David Leopold in a LinkedIn message. “The ban will do little to enhance U.S. national security and much to hurt our worldwide standing.”

For now, Myanmar’s military junta has not commented on the U.S. ban. However, junta leader Min Aung Hlaing said that it was an “honor” to receive a letter from Trump in July threatening a 40% tariff on goods imported from Myanmar starting Aug. 1. Aung Hlaing asked for a reduction in the tariff rate and for the U.S. to lift economic sanctions on Myanmar. 

More recently, the Trump administration terminated Temporary Protected Status (TPS) for Myanmar nationals, asserting that conditions in the country no longer warrant humanitarian protection. TPS allows nationals from certain countries to lawfully reside and work in the U.S. temporarily. Broadly, the Trump administration has terminated TPS for hundreds of thousands of immigrants. An estimated 3,969 people from Myanmar currently have TPS, which is now set to expire on Jan. 26, 2026. 

Critics argue that the Trump administration’s decision to impose a full immigrant-visa ban on Myanmar citizens and end protective status undermines the U.S.’s long-standing claim to support Myanmar’s fragile democratic transition. Instead, the administration has chosen to treat the entire population of Myanmar as a security risk. 

Human rights organizations such as EarthRights International argue that the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) “should not be leading U.S. foreign policy in Myanmar.”The advocacy organization also called on the Trump administration to consult more proactively with Myanmar civil society groups in the U.S. and with members of Congress who are monitoring the conflict, rather than relying on the propaganda of a junta committed to using terror against its fellow citizens. 

The decision to terminate TPS for citizens of Myanmar will likely translate to DHS efforts to deport these immigrants from the U.S., despite ongoing political instability, continued fighting between the military regime and resistance forces, widespread displacement, and credible evidence of torture and extrajudicial killings in Myanmar. Human rights organizations across the globe have condemned the Trump administration’s decision. Groups such as Human Rights Watch and experts with the United Nations continue to assert that Myanmar remains deeply unsafe.

Worsening conditions for refugees and asylum-seekers in the U.S., the administration announced in November that it would intensify scrutiny of immigrants lawfully in the U.S. who are from the 19 countries previously listed under Trump-era visa restrictions, including Myanmar. 

Trump administration officials have instructed immigration agencies to re-review green card holders, refugees admitted since 2021, and new applicants from these countries under expanded, so-called national security vetting. This step is expected to slow immigration processing significantly, heighten the likelihood of denials, and deepen existing backlogs within U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services and DHS. Immigrants who have lived lawfully in the U.S. for years now also face uncertainty and fear that routine check-ins or applications may be delayed or challenged under shifting standards.

The visa ban, the rollback of TPS, and the heightened scrutiny of immigrants from visa-ban nations represent a broad tightening of U.S. immigration policy—one that disproportionately affects individuals from countries such as Myanmar who are fleeing conflict, authoritarian governments, or state-sponsored violence. 

In Mandalay, Noo Khin continues to mourn her losses. But even as the visa ban remains in place, she holds on to the hope that one day she’ll walk across Kenyon’s tree-lined campus.

“Since it was an [Early Decision] acceptance, I had withdrawn from all the other schools I applied to, so I didn’t have a backup plan,” she said. “I still look at the acceptance letter mail sometimes, and it still makes me feel happy but with a hint of melancholy now.”

Noo Khin is now looking into options in other countries, but the process feels daunting.

“I hate the words: ‘This happens for the better,’” she said. “In my case, it is not because of destiny or fate. It is a man made misery.”

Editorial Team:
Tina Vasquez, Lead Editor
Carolyn Copeland, Top Editor
Rashmee Kumar, Copy Editor