August 6, 2025 | 09:59 am
TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - The administration of President Donald Trump has tightened the regulations for US visas for foreign athletes who want to compete in the United States. As reported from the website of the US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS), they have issued new guidelines on Monday, August 4, 2025, regarding the extraordinary ability visa category for competing in women's sports.
Through these updated regulations, the USCIS states that the history of a male athlete who has previously competed in women's sports will be considered a negative point in evaluating the eligibility of their visa application, including for the O-1A category for individuals with extraordinary abilities, the EB-1 and EB-2 green cards for skilled workers, and requests for relief based on national interest.
These guidelines are a continuation of an executive order issued by Trump at the beginning of his second term. The order aims to ban transgender women athletes from participating in women's sports competitions.
"Males should not be in women's sports. USCIS is closing the legal loopholes for foreign male athletes whose only chance of winning in elite sports is by changing their gender identity and exploiting their biological advantage over women," said USCIS spokesperson Matthew Tragesser.
The guidelines also do not directly mention the words transgender or transgender women. Instead, USCIS uses the term 'male athletes who want to compete in women's sports'.
"This is about safety, fairness, respect, and truth, that only female athletes are allowed to receive visas to participate in women's sports in the United States," said Tragesser.
According to a report from NBC News, about 25,000 of over 500,000 NCAA (National Collegiate Athletic Association) athletes are international students. However, NCAA President Charlie Baker told a Senate committee last December that he was aware of fewer than 10 transgender athletes in the NCAA.
This policy is likely to affect foreign athletes who had previously planned to compete in the 2028 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles. However, last month, the United States Olympic and Paralympic Committee had already banned transgender athletes from participating in women's sports.
So far, only a handful of transgender athletes have ever competed in the Olympics. Laurel Hubbard, a weightlifter from New Zealand, became the first transgender athlete to compete in the Tokyo 2021 Olympics, although she did not win a medal. American skateboarder Alana Smith and Canadian soccer player Quinn also competed in the same Olympics. Quinn became the first transgender and non-binary athlete to win a gold medal.
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