J1 visa applicants urged to 'tread lightly' amid private social media account warning
The Trump administration is set to 'escalate' its visa vetting process, with a new pilot programme that will require applicants to hand over all of their social media handles for the past five years and require all visa applicants to set all their social media accounts to public.
A new cable obtained by CBS News, the US State Department, could have serious consequences for J1 Visa applicants considering heading to the States this summer, as it was preparing to expand social media screening and vetting.
The cable instructs US consular officers to ask visa applicants to set all their social media accounts to public in the event that they need to be reviewed as part of the vetting. US President Donald Trump. Pic:The agency did not specify exactly what type of content it would be looking for.
The new vetting measures will build upon a previous statement issued last month from United States Citizenship and Immigration Services announcing that the agency will be taking into account 'antisemitic activity on social media' as 'grounds for denying immigration benefit requests.'
And purging or deleting media presence in its entirety could also be grounds for refusal. Harvard University. Pic: RICK FRIEDMAN/AFP via Getty Images
The cable explicitly states the State Department also instructed officers to 'consider whether the lack of any online presence, or having social media accounts restricted to 'private' or with limited visibility, may be reflective of evasiveness and call into question the applicant's credibility.'
The new stepped-up social media scrutiny policy comes as Donald Trump continues to crack down on anyone deemed as subversive or expressing anti-American or anti-Semitic opinions, with students in particular being advised to 'tread lightly' with their online footprint.
'President Trump will always put the safety of Americans first, and it is a privilege, not a right, to study in the United States,' White House spokesperson Anna Kelly said in a statement. 'Enhanced social media vetting is a commonsense measure that will help ensure that guests in our country are not planning to harm Americans, which is a national security priority.'
The new intensified visa vetting program is set to be targeted initially at foreign students attempting to enrol at the Ivy League University of Harvard, but is expected to be rolled out to anyone applying for a US visa.
Last week, US Secretary of State Marc Rubio ordered US Embassies worldwide to pause any new visa interviews as it intensifies its visa entry policies across the globe.
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