The Duke of Sussex has lived in America since 2020.
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Prince Harry takes part in sports at Invictus Games event at NEC
A number of documents about Prince Harry have been “withheld” in a fresh update by the US State Department. The Duke of Sussex is having hundreds of his visa documents reviewed after a Freedom of Information Act case related to his visa and past drug use, court documents show.
In a fresh update, it has been confirmed that 18 documents relating to Harry are being withheld. This comes after reports that US Government officials have spent months processing material and results from searches of State Department computer systems. Newsweek reported that at the end of July, a decision was made to withhold an initial batch of 18 documents.
Prince Harry is unlikely to see his visa documents all made public (Image: Mark Cuthbert/UK Press via Getty Images)
Newsweek also reports that the department is reviewing 307 documents totalling 2,487 pages. None of these is likely to be publicly released at the moment.
A joint status report, filed at the district court in D.C. and seen by Newsweek, read: “This case stems from a Freedom of Information Act (“FOIA”) request that Plaintiffs submitted to the Department for records regarding Henry Charles Albert David, also known as ‘the Duke of Sussex’ or ‘Prince Harry.
“The State Department made its first interim production in this case on July 30, 2026, in which it identified 18 responsive records, all withheld in their entirety.”
This update comes after the right-wing think tank Heritage Foundation initially tried to sue the Department of Homeland Security and get Harry’s visa records released, arguing the American public had a right to know whether he was candid about his use of drugs in the past on his visa application.
This comes after the duke admitted to drug use in his younger years in Spare. Heritage lost the case after Judge Carl Nichols ruled that Harry’s privacy interests outweighed any public interest in disclosure.
Heritage’s lawyers then filed a new case in 2025 against the State Department, requesting all its other documents about Harry, apart from the visa papers themselves.
The think tank wants to know whether Harry lied about his past taking drugs on his visa forms, and whether he should have even been allowed to enter the US with this history, something many people get banned from the US for.
Harry’s visa documents are unlikely ever to be released in full due to privacy concerns, which the court has consistently determined outweigh the public interest in this case.
Prince Harry’s spokesperson has been contacted for comment. Sources close to the duke have always insisted he was truthful on his visa application to the US, where he has lived for six years.
