Prince Harry and his wife Meghan Markle moved to California in 2020 after they stepped back from their roles as senior members of the Royal Family

A US judge has issued a major update in Prince Harry’s visa row, stating files must be made public by next week.

Judge Carl Nichols gave a deadline of Tuesday, March 18 to release the files that will show whether the prince’s immigration paperwork is in order. The judge also approved redactions that suggested the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), adding they were “appropriate.”

It is not clear at this stage what information would be released, although DHS lawyers previously said three items would be released with redactions, but that a fourth must be kept private. The right-wing Heritage Foundation sued the DHS last year following the agency’s decision to deny a freedom of information request for the Duke’s documents.

The Heritage Foundation pressed for the release of Harry’s documents ( 
Image:
AFP via Getty Images)
The think tank has argued that Harry either received special treatment from the Biden administration or had lied on his immigration forms. In his memoir, Spare, as well as his Netflix TV series Harry said he had previously used cannabis, cocaine and magic mushrooms.

In his order, Judge Nichols, who had been appointed by US President Donald Trump, added: “The government has provided the court with its proposed redactions to the documents…those redactions appearing appropriate, the government is ORDERED to lodge on the docket the redacted versions of those documents no later than March 18, 2025.”

The case has been embarrassing for Harry who had been quizzed on whether he could be deported if he was found to have lied. But Mr Trump recently said Harry would not be ordered out of the country while also taking a swipe at his wife Meghan Markle, who he branded “terrible”.

Harry and Meghan moved to the US in 2020 ( 
Image:
AFP via Getty Images)
Judge Nichols previously refused a request from the Heritage foundation to release all the documents, saying he had a right to privacy. But, he later reconsidered during a fresh hearing, saying he wanted to reveal as much as possible.

He said during a previously hearing: “In my view that has to happen”. The judge added he wanted to make the “maximum amount” of material public as possible. He did not want to reveal the prince’s immigration status, meaning there could be heavy redactions in some areas.

Nile Gardiner, the director of the Margaret Thatcher Center for Freedom at Heritage, appealed to the US president to make the files public. He added the president put “border security and the application of the rule of law a top priority”.

Prince Harry has been open about his drug use in the past ( 
Image:
AFP via Getty Images)
Prince Harry has been open about his past drug use and said that cannabis helped heal his trauma following the public death of his mum, Princess Diana

The DHS wrote: “Even though he is a public figure, Prince Harry still maintains a privacy interest in these types of records and in his immigration or visa status generally. Even if public figures may have a diminished expectation of privacy, they do not surrender their privacy interests entirely.”

But the DHS said Heritage merely “recounted a litany of allegedly suspicious circumstances that lack any substantiation.” The DHS dismissed the Heritage Foundation’s claims as a “bare suspicion of government misconduct” and that making the prince’s paperwork public would not shed “meaningful light” on its functions.

The Mirror has contacted Harry and Meghan’s Archewell Foundation for comment.