Pope Leo XIV told NBC News he expects to visit the United States "in the next couple of years." That is the clearest timeline he has given for a trip to the country where he was born. In the interview with NBC anchor Lester Holt, the 69-year-old pope also talked about immigration and what he admires about the United States.

Leo XIV said he loves "America's sense of freedom and welcome" during the interview, which Vatican News published on July 30, 2026. He called immigration foundational to the United States, connecting it to a message he has returned to again and again since becoming pope. Vatican News

This was not Leo's first interview with NBC. An earlier one, published September 18, 2025, covered Donald Trump, sex abuse scandals, LGBTQ+ welcome, and China. That conversation came about a week after he was elected the first pope from the United States. NBC News His first NBC interview, in May 2025, had explored whether having an American pope might draw people back to the Church. NBC News

Leo was born in Chicago and holds U.S. citizenship. He has made immigration a recurring topic when speaking to Americans. On July 4, 2026, he marked the 250th anniversary of U.S. independence with a speech given from Lampedusa, an Italian island where many migrants first arrive after crossing the Mediterranean Sea. In that speech, he asked Americans to welcome and protect immigrants. Reuters Giving the speech from Lampedusa connected two separate immigration stories: the migrant crisis in Europe and the immigration debate in the United States.

The day before, July 3, 2026, Leo gave his first major address to his home country, praising the United States' history of welcoming immigrants. Reuters The two speeches back-to-back made immigration the main theme of his early outreach to Americans.

A U.S. visit is not happening right away, though. The director of the Holy See Press Office confirmed in March 2026 that Leo XIV will not travel to the United States in 2026. Catholic News Agency His NBC interview places the trip within a "couple of years," which means 2027 or 2028 at the earliest.

The broader context here is that no pope before Leo has ever been a U.S. citizen. That makes his comments on American policy different from anything previous popes have said. Speaking about U.S. immigration from Lampedusa rather than from Rome or Washington was a deliberate choice, linking the American debate to the global migration crisis the Vatican has long focused on. The NBC interviews, spread over fifteen months, suggest Leo is using the network as a steady way to reach people in his home country.

What is still unknown is what a future visit would look like and what political situation it would land in. A papal trip to the United States while Donald Trump is president would run into the same immigration enforcement policies that Leo's July 4 speech quietly pushed back against. Whether the "couple of years" timeline holds, and what topics a visit would focus on, will depend on Vatican scheduling and the state of relations between the U.S. and the Holy See (the Vatican's governing body) at the time of travel.