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The US State Department last month put student visa processing on hold following orders from Secretary of State Marco Rubio.
The US wants social media account settings set to “public”. Picture: iStock
The United States (US) embassy in South Africa has announced that student visa applicants and people wishing to visit the US will be required to set their social media account settings to “public” in order to facilitate scrutiny of their posts.
This comes after the US State Department last month put student visa processing on hold following orders from Secretary of State Marco Rubio, in a series of measures by the Trump administration aimed at tightening immigration screening and cracking down on student protests at universities, including Harvard.
US Visas
Earlier this month, the US announced that it would resume processing of visa applications from foreign students, but that all applicants would now be required to make their social media accounts available for review.
The State Department said that an applicant’s failure to set their accounts to “public,” the lowest-level privacy setting, could be taken as a sign they are trying to hide their online activity.
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Social media accounts
On Thursday, the US embassy in South Africa posted on X that anyone applying for an F, M or J nonimmigrant visa “are requested to adjust privacy settings on all of their personal social media accounts to ‘public’ to facilitate vetting necessary to establish their identity and admissibility.”
The embassy said the change was “effective immediately.”
What are F, M, and J visas
All three types of visas are applicable to individuals who wish to study in the United States.
According to the US Homeland Security:
- An F status visa is for a student who wishes to study a traditional academic course at a higher education institution, like an English degree.
- An M status visa is for students who are enrolling in a vocational course that may be sponsored by a business or another institution. These are for people who wish to gain technical skills like aviation or electrical engineering.
- A J status visa is for someone who is participating in a cultural exchange programme, usually organised by their home country’s government in partnership with Washington.
US officials stated that the move to make social media account settings public is necessary to enhance the integrity of the visa application process.
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