The U.S. State Department is now requiring foreign students applying for visas to make their social media accounts public as part of expanded screening measures that took effect immediately following a June announcement. All applicants for F, M, and J nonimmigrant visas must adjust the privacy settings on all of their social media profiles to “public” to facilitate vetting by U.S. officials, according to the State Department.
Visa applicants are required to list all social media usernames or handles of every platform they have used from the last 5 years on the DS-160 visa application form, building on requirements that have been in place since 2019. The new policy represents a significant expansion of digital surveillance in the visa process, as consular officers will now actively review public social media content rather than simply collecting usernames.
The screening will include looking for “any indications of hostility towards the citizens, culture, government, institutions or founding principles of the United States,” according to internal State Department guidance. The measure affects student visas, academic exchange programs, and vocational training visas, impacting hundreds of thousands of international students who apply to study in the U.S. each year.
U.S. embassies and consulates worldwide, including the mission in Nigeria, have begun implementing the policy after temporarily suspending certain visa appointments earlier this year. The State Department frames the enhanced screening as necessary for national security, stating that “every visa adjudication is a national security decision”.
