Hundreds of Ghanaian prospective applicants who dream of furthering their education in the United States of America in the near future will have to realign their plans following a recent order by the Trump administration.

The US government has ordered its missions abroad to halt scheduling new appointments for student and exchange visitor visa applications.

This directive has been issued to enable the State Department expand social media vetting of foreign students, according to Reuters, citing information from an internal cable.

State Department spokesperson Tammy Bruce is quoted to have said, "We will continue to use every tool we can to assess who it is that's coming here, whether they are students or otherwise."

"The expanded social media vetting will require consular sections to modify their operations, processes and allocation of resources, according to the cable, which advises the sections going forward to take into consideration the workload and resource requirements of each case before scheduling them," Reuters further reported.

About a week ago, the US government moved to revoke Harvard's ability to enroll international students - about 6,800 in number, representing almost 27% of Harvard's total enrollment.

Ghana has been hit hard by this directive, as data reveals the surging number of student applications by Ghanaians.

In 2023, the US Embassy revealed that Ghana ranked 14th with regards to the country with the most students traveling to the US for studies.

A total of 10,000 visa applications were turned in by students and sportsmen from Ghana.

Per reports, the number of Ghanaians who applied for visa applications between 2019 and 2023 had tripled.

Meanwhile, the United States Embassy in Ghana has expressed deep concern over a surge in fraudulent visa applications, revealing that approximately 60% of the 61,000 submissions received in 2024 were denied-largely due to fraud.

According to the Embassy, only 25,000 applications were approved this year, a figure officials say reflects the increasing involvement of middlemen and fraudulent agents posing as facilitators to unsuspecting Ghanaians desperate to travel abroad.

Speaking at a press conference in Accra, the Consul General of the U.S. Embassy, Elliot Fertik, attributed the sharp rate of denials to widespread deception by self-styled "fixers" who prey on applicants with false assurances of guaranteed visas often charging thousands of dollars.

"There are often a lot of people who say, "If you pay me money, I can get you a visa." That is not true," Mr. Fertik stressed.

"The visa application process can be done by anyone, on their own.

Paying extra money to someone who claims to have an inside track is a lie; they are simply taking your money." He disclosed that hundreds of victims report to the Embassy annually after being defrauded of up to $5,000 by these fraudulent agents, who eventually fail to deliver any results.

In response to the growing trend, the Embassy is intensifying efforts in collaboration with Ghanaian security agencies to track and prosecute individuals involved in visa-related scams.