The U.S. State Department has introduced a new requirement for applicants for nonimmigrant student and exchange visas: all of their social media profiles must be publicly available. The goal is to strengthen the vetting of candidates for national security reasons.
The U.S. State Department has introduced a new requirement for applicants for nonimmigrant student and exchange visas: all of their social media profiles must be publicly available. The goal is to strengthen the vetting of candidates for national security reasons.
According to an official statement from the US Department of State, starting in June 2025, all applicants for nonimmigrant visas in the F, M, and J categories. That is, students, participants in educational or academic programs, and exchange programs are required to set the privacy settings on their social media to «public.»
The State Department emphasizes that every visa review is a decision directly related to the national security of the United States. From now on, the review process will also take into account applicants' online activity, including their presence on social media.
«We use all available information to vet candidates and identify those who pose a threat to the United States. Social media is part of this information,» the official release states.
U.S. embassies will soon resume accepting applications for these visa categories. Applicants are advised to check the embassy or consulate websites for available application dates.
At the same time, similar requirements have already been introduced in other countries: for example, in Mexico, applicants were required to indicate all the nicknames they used on social networks over the past five years.
The US has required social media IDs on visa applications since 2019, but now it is making it mandatory to disclose the content of accounts. The move has sparked debate among human rights activists who see it as a violation of privacy and risks discrimination based on digital footprints. However, the State Department insists that a visa is a privilege, not a right.
Previously, we wrote about how the Ukrainian passport ranked 30th in the world ranking for the number of countries you can travel to without a visa.
