The United States government has announced it will soon resume processing visa applications for international students, with a new requirement mandating that applicants make their social media accounts publicly accessible.
In a statement released by the U.S. State Department, it was said that the resumed visa processing would cover F (academic students), M (vocational students), and J (exchange visitors) nonimmigrant categories.
However, the department maintained that a stricter vetting process would be applied going forward, with a particular focus on applicants’ digital footprints. “To facilitate this vetting, all applicants will be instructed to adjust the privacy settings on all of their social media profiles to ‘public’,” the statement said.
The department added that failing to comply with this requirement could be interpreted as an attempt to obscure online activity, which may negatively affect the outcome of an application.
