Some of Prince Harry’s visa documents have been withheld in full by the US State Department, according to court filings in an ongoing Freedom of Information Act dispute.
The conservative think tank Heritage Foundation brought the case seeking records held by the department about the Duke of Sussex, particularly in connection with his visa status and his history of drug use.
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The first interim production, seen by Newsweek, identified 18 documents – all of which have been withheld – while the department continues to review a further 289 documents. The next joint status report is scheduled for October 13.
Heritage argue Harry would inevitably have faced questions about prior drug use on his visa application forms, which should have rendered him ineligible for admission without special dispensation.
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They further suggested that any preferential treatment afforded to a member of the Royal Family would raise serious questions about the fairness of America’s immigration system.
The think tank demanded access to Harry’s visa records, contending that the American public deserved to know whether the prince had been honest about his narcotics use when applying for entry to the US.
Heritage’s original case – where they pursued action against the Department of Homeland Security – centred on revelations in Harry’s memoir, Spare, in which he described using cannabis, cocaine, magic mushrooms and ayahuasca.
That initial case ended in defeat after Judge Carl Nichols ruled that the duke’s right to privacy carried greater weight than any public interest in seeing the records disclosed.
“The Court agrees that the Duke’s privacy interest outweighs any public interest, and therefore grants Defendant’s Motion for Summary Judgment,” Mr Nichols concluded in his memorandum.
Undeterred, Heritage’s lawyers launched a fresh case in 2025, this time targeting the State Department and requesting all other documents concerning Harry beyond the visa papers themselves.
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Donald Trump himself waded into the matter during a 2024 interview with Nigel Farage on GB News, saying: “We’ll have to see if they know something about the drugs, and if he lied they’ll have to take appropriate action.”
Following Heritage’s courtroom defeat, the think tank’s Oversight Project director Mike Howell declared “the Prince Harry scandal just got a lot more suspicious” and predicted the case for deportation had grown stronger.
Yet after winning the presidency in November 2024, President Trump opted against taking any action.
When pressed on the matter in February 2025, the President said: “I’ll leave him alone. He’s got enough problems with his wife. She’s terrible.”
The 18 withheld files represent merely the first tranche of a far larger swathe of documents.
Officials are working through 307 in total, spanning some 2,487 pages drawn from State Department computer systems.
While the initial batch offered nothing to those eager for a glimpse of government records concerning the prince, the remaining 289 documents could yet yield disclosures.
GB News has approached the US State Department for comment.
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