US visa: Indians seeking F, M, J non-immigrant visas must 'adjust social media settings', says embassy
US visa: If you're set to apply for a higher education in the US, get ready for a new digital checkpoint—your social media profiles.
In the latest advisory, the US Embassy in India has announced that all applicants for F, M, or J non-immigrant visas must now ensure their social media accounts are set to public before appearing for a visa interview.
'Effective immediately, all individuals applying for an F, M, or J nonimmigrant visa are requested to adjust the privacy settings on all of their social media accounts to public to facilitate vetting necessary to establish their identity and admissibility to the United States under US law," reads the US Embassy's instruction.
Those who fail to do so will be suspected of hiding that activity from US officials, reported The Guardian. Indians seeking F, M, J non-immigrant visas must 'adjust social media settings', says embassy
The latest move asking visa applicants to make their social media profies 'public' comes after US resumes processing F-1 student visas following a short suspension.
According to a report by The Guardian, US diplomats have been directed to conduct an online presence review for foreign students to look for 'any indications of hostility toward the citizens, culture, government, institutions, or founding principles of the United States'.
One official also told the media outlet that social media vetting will help US ensure that the country can properly screen every single person attempting to visit the country.
Reacting to the move, experts have said that while the resuming of interviews is good news, there is still a lot of uncertainty.
'It's good news, bad news. I mean, I'm happy that the interviews are opening up again, because there's a lot of students that are running out of time to get here in the fall, and so that was creating a lot of stress and anxiety for them. But also … there's still a lot of uncertainty,' Shaun Carver, executive director of International House at the University of California, Berkeley told The Hill.
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