Travelers applying for visas to visit the United States could be rejected if the gender selected on their visa application does not match their sex at birth, according to a memo issued by US Secretary of State Marco Rubio that was first reported by independent journalist and transgender-rights activist Erin Reed on February 25, 2025.

The memo, titled “Guidance for Visa Adjudicators on Executive Order 14201: ‘Keeping Men Out of Women’s Sports,’” outlines how the US government plans to prevent transgender athletes from traveling into the country to compete in women’s sports events. The directive comes as Los Angeles prepares to host the 2028 Summer Olympics.

Some experts are concerned that one particular section of the memo could be used to restrict travel of all transgender visa applicants, even if they are not competing athletes. It states that “all visas must reflect an applicant’s sex at birth,” and gives consular officials the right to deny applications if “reasonable doubt” is cast on an applicant’s listed gender marker.

With 17 countries allowing their citizens to self-select gender markers that may not match their sex assigned at birth on official travel documents such as passports, legal experts say the policy could effectively bar transgender travelers who don’t meet these new criteria from entering the US. The policy does not apply to US citizens traveling back to the States or travelers from the 40-plus nations participating in the US Visa Waiver Program.

“It’s really hard to see how this is just limited to sports,” says Ava Benach, an immigration lawyer based in Washington, DC. “What jumps out to me is the threat of finding people to be inadmissible for misrepresentation or fraud—the misrepresentation is misrepresenting your gender as the Department of State sees it, and I think this has absolutely nothing to do with sports and is simply a way to stop the admission of trans people into the United States.”

Whether or not the new policy will be applied to all transgender travelers who apply for US travel visas is not yet clear. When asked whether the State Department policy applies to all visa applications to the US or only transgender athletes traveling to participate in a women’s sports competitions, a State Department spokesperson said the memo “instructs the Department of State and Department of Homeland Security to review and adjust, as needed, policies permitting admission to the United States of men seeking to participate in women’s sports.”

“Whenever an individual applies for a US visa, a consular officer reviews the facts of the case and determines whether the applicant is eligible for that visa based on US law,” the spokesperson said in a statement. “Visa applications are adjudicated on a case-by-case basis, and we cannot speculate on whether someone may or may not be eligible for a visa.”

For now, Benach says, “trans travelers certainly seem to be banned for the purpose of coming to participate in athletic events, and I think [the new policy] could easily bar trans people from coming into the United States for any other reason whatsoever.”

Concerned travelers may be able to meet the new guidelines by selecting the sex that matches their birth certificate on their visa application, even if it doesn't match the gender marker they've selected on their passport. “The memo says that the passport is presumptive, but when the consular has reason to believe that the passport gender marker is something other than the gender assigned at birth, the officer can request additional documentation,” Benach explains. “It would seem that the gender on the birth certificate would then control [visa approval], unless it is a late issued birth certificate, as many are. It may very well be a workaround to mark on the application the birth certificate gender even if it conflicts with the passport gender, but then you are bringing lots more documents to an interview and facing lots more scrutiny.”

The State Department memo follows President Donald Trump’s February 5 executive order “Keeping Men Out of Women’s Sports.” The order builds on policies established in the earlier executive order “Defending Women From Gender Ideology Extremism and Restoring Biological Truth to the Federal Government,” which made it the policy of the United States to recognize two sexes, male and female, which are “not changeable” from birth. The State Department soon after suspended the processing of US passport applications marked with the X gender marker and applications with gender markers that do not match the sex reported on an applicant’s supporting documents, such as a previous passport, a driver’s license, or a birth certificate.

The impact of the former executive order on trans travelers most recently made headlines after Euphoria actor Hunter Schafer reported finding her passport’s gender marker changed from F to M after requesting a renewal on February 23, 2025. “No part of the process was different,” she said in the TikTok video discussing the incident. “I filled everything out just like I normally would. I put female, and when it was picked up today and I opened it up, they had changed the marker to male.”

Schafer said in the video that she believes this change is a direct consequence of the current administration. “I just feel like it's important to share that it's not just talk, that this is real, and it's happening and no one, no matter their circumstance, no matter how wealthy or white or pretty or whatever, is excluded,” she said.