The United States consulates in Karachi and Lahore on Thursday requested that all applicants for F, M or J nonimmigrant visas make their social media accounts public for vetting, after similar instructions were issued by the US Embassy in Delhi earlier this week.
US President Donald Trump’s administration on Wednesday ordered the resumption of student visa appointments but significantly tightened its social media vetting in a bid to identify any applicants who may be hostile towards the country, according to an internal State Department cable reviewed by Reuters.
US consular officers are now required to conduct a “comprehensive and thorough vetting” of all student and exchange visitor applicants to identify those who “bear hostile attitudes toward our citizens, culture, government, institutions, or founding principles”, said the cable, which was dated June 18 and sent to US missions on Wednesday.
In Instagram posts uploaded today, the consulates 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.”
They added that since 2019, the US has required visa applicants to provide social media identifiers on immigrant and nonimmigrant visa application forms. The post stated that applicants had to fill out social media identifiers and account handles for each platform on the application form.
“Omitting social media information on your application could lead to visa denial and ineligibility for future US visas,” the consulate warned.
F and M are different student visa types, while the J visa is a nonimmigrant visa for individuals approved to participate in exchange visitor programmes in the US.
On May 27, the Trump administration ordered its missions abroad to stop scheduling new appointments for student and exchange visitor visa applicants, saying the State Department was set to expand social media vetting of foreign students.
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said updated guidance would be released once a review was completed.
