Hold on if you are planning to study in America! The US Embassy’s new diktat for foreign students says that no visa will be issued to the students if their social media accounts are private. Donald Trump’s administration makes social media vetting mandatory for visa approval.
To get your visa approved, you have to make your social media accounts public before your visa interview. The US Embassy in India has cleared that all applicants for F, M, or J non-immigrant visas includes students and exchange visitors, who must ensure that their social media profiles are set to ‘public’ to enable background checks.
In a post directed at student applicants on Monday, the embassy said, “Effective immediately, all individuals applying for an F, M, or J nonimmigrant visa are requested to adjust the privacy settings on all of their social media accounts to public to facilitate vetting necessary to establish their identity and admissibility to the United States under US law.”
This follows the resumption of F-1 student visa processing after a brief suspension. But with the restart comes tighter scrutiny.
What should people do?
Firstly, make all social media profiles public before applying for the F, M or J visa
- Ensure your application, interview answers and online activity match
- Do not post anything that contradicts your stated reason for traveling
- Keep academic and career intentions clear and factual across platforms
The US embassy has reiterated that holding a visa is not a right, and that visa can be revoked if a person is found to be in violation of the law, even after arrival.
Social media vetting since 2019
The embassy said that the social media checks are not new, but the change now is that students must take those profiles publicly visible. The official post by the US Administration read, “Since 2019, the United States has required visa applicants to provide social media identifiers on immigrant and non-immigrant visa application forms.”
“We use all available information in the visa screening and vetting to identify visa applicants who are inadmissible to the United States, including those who pose a threat to US national security,” said the embassy.
What Indian Students take care of?
The education experts said that visa success increasingly depends on how consistent and transparent students are both online and offline.
A key reason behind the success of applicants is the authenticity of the application and the intent that they are able to communicate with the visa officers. The students are advised to be honest and clear about their academic background, journey, and goals.
Consistency and transparency helped establish credibility. The applicants must ensure that the visa application forms are filled out accurately and reflect the same information shared during the interview and on their social media platforms.