US To Screen Social Media Of More Visa Applicants From October 1: What Changes
The US will expand social media screening from October 1 to I, TN and TD visa applicants, requiring public profiles as part of broader national security and safety vetting.
From October 1, applicants for I, TN and TD visas will be instructed to set the privacy settings on all their social media accounts to "public" or "open".
The United States is expanding its online presence screening for visa applicants, bringing three more non-immigrant visa categories under review from October 1.
The change will affect foreign media representatives, professionals travelling to the US under the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA), and certain dependents.
The I visa is issued to foreign media representatives who travel temporarily to the US for work. This includes journalists and people working in radio, film and print. Their work must involve information or education, generally news gathering and reporting, for a media organisation headquartered outside the US.
The TN category is for eligible Canadian and Mexican citizens seeking temporary employment in specified professional occupations under the USMCA. Applicants must have a prearranged job and meet the qualifications required for their profession. Permanent residence in Canada or Mexico, by itself, does not make someone eligible for a TN visa.
The TD category applies to the spouses and unmarried minor children of TN professionals who accompany them to the US or join them later. Unlike TN applicants, TD dependents do not have to be Canadian or Mexican citizens.
From October 1, applicants for I, TN and TD visas will be instructed to set the privacy settings on all their social media accounts to “public” or “open”. The State Department said in a release published on September 18 that it uses information from available sources as part of its visa screening and vetting process.
The announcement does not provide a separate list of posts that applicants must delete or avoid. It also does not state that a particular type of post will automatically result in a visa refusal.
The expanded screening builds on measures already in place for several other non-immigrant visa categories. The process currently applies to F-1 and M-1 student visa applicants and their F-2 and M-2 dependents. It also covers H-1B and H-3 applicants, their H-4 dependents, and J-1 and J-2 exchange visitors.
Other categories already subject to the screening include A-3 and G-5 visas, as well as C-3 applicants who are domestic workers.
The framework also covers K-1, K-2 and K-3 visas, Q visas for international cultural exchange participants, R-1 and R-2 visas for religious occupations and their dependents, and S, T and U categories for witnesses, informants and victims.
“Every visa adjudication is fundamentally a national security decision,” the department said.