Students in Myanmar Contend With a Coup, Civil War, and Trump’s Visa Ban |
As we produce journalism that combats authoritarianism, censorship, injustice, and misinformation, your support is urgently needed. Please make a year-end gift to Truthout today.
This story was originally published by Prism.
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.
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........