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5h ago

US Resumes Student Visa Processing With Mandatory Social Media Screening

State Department officials will require social media profiles to be publicly accessible for screening as part of new security protocols for student visa applicants.

Chinese students wait outside the U.S. Embassy for their visa application interviews, in Beijing on May 2, 2012.
Inset: US Secretary of State Marco Rubio poses during a meeting with the Kazakhstan deputy prime minister and foreign minister in the Treaty Room of the State Department in Washington, DC on June 12, 2025. Main: An employee checks phones as pro-Palestinian supporters hold picket line outside Columbia University, Tuesday, Sep. 3, 2024, in New York.
US resumes student visas with mandatory social media screening for applicants
U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio speaks during the American Compass New World Gala at the National Building Museum on June 3, 2025 in Washington, DC.

Overview

  • Embassies and consulates have been directed to restart F, M and J visa interviews after a monthlong pause at the end of May.
  • All student visa applicants must set every social media account to public and disclose account handles for consular review.
  • Consular officers will vet applicants’ entire online presence for hostility toward US citizens, culture, government or support for designated terrorists or antisemitic violence.
  • Refusal to grant access or limited profile visibility may be interpreted as evasion and result in visa denial.
  • Educational and civil rights groups warn the measures threaten privacy, free speech and could deter international students from enrolling in US institutions.