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6h ago

U.S. Resumes Student Visas With Mandatory Social Media Screening

The State Department will now require applicants to make their social media profiles public to flag hostile content under expanded vetting rules.

Chinese students wait outside the U.S. Embassy for their visa application interviews, in Beijing on May 2, 2012.
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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.
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Overview

  • On June 18 the State Department lifted its May pause on F-1, M-1 and J-1 visa interviews to implement the new social media requirement.
  • All student visa applicants must adjust privacy settings on every social media profile to public for consular officers to review posts and activity.
  • Consular officers have been instructed to search for any indications of hostility toward U.S. citizens, culture, government, institutions or founding principles.
  • Applicants who refuse to grant access may be denied a visa if officers view that refusal as an attempt to evade or conceal online behaviour.
  • Free-speech advocates say the policy echoes Cold War–style ideological vetting and risks chilling legitimate political expression by thousands of prospective students.