Overview

• All DS-160 visa applicants must list every social media username or handle used over the past five years or risk denial and future ineligibility.
• F, M and J non-immigrant visa seekers have been asked to make their social media profiles public for identity verification and security screening.
• U.S. officials emphasize that every visa adjudication is a national security decision drawing on all available social media information.
• The mandate builds on social media identifier disclosures first introduced in 2019 and broadened under President Trump’s wider immigration control measures.
• India’s external affairs ministry is holding bilateral talks with the U.S. to safeguard the interests of its students and professionals under the new screening regime.