The U.S. Embassy has announced a significant update to its visa screening process for F, M, and J nonimmigrant visa categories. Effective immediately, all applicants must set their personal social media accounts to “public” to assist in the vetting process used to establish their identity and eligibility to enter the United States.
In an official post on X (formerly Twitter), the Embassy stated, “Every visa adjudication is a national security decision.” The new directive is intended to enhance transparency and provide consular officers with full access to publicly available online information that may impact an applicant’s admissibility.
The Embassy added, “Effective immediately, all individuals applying for an F, M, or J nonimmigrant visa are requested to adjust the privacy settings on all of their personal social media accounts to ‘public’ to facilitate vetting necessary to establish their identity and admissibility to the United States.”
This move builds on the U.S. government’s 2019 policy requiring all visa applicants, immigrant and nonimmigrant, to submit social media identifiers as part of their visa application forms.
“We use all available information in our visa screening and vetting to identify visa applicants who are inadmissible to the United States, including those who pose a threat to U.S. national security,” the Embassy added in the post.
