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| Visa checks now include five years' posts |
The United States has widened digital checks on student and exchange visas, asking applicants to list social media handles used in the last five years and to make profiles public while their cases are checked.
The move started with fresh guidance to consulates and embassies that asks F, M and J visa applicants to adjust privacy settings and to provide the usernames they used over the past five years on every platform.
The change grew out of an internal push to expand what consular staff call “online presence” checks, and officials said the aim is to verify identity and spot people who might pose security risks.
For Nigerians and other nationals applying from abroad, local U.S. missions have posted notices and guidance telling student and exchange visa applicants they should expect this digital screening and to prepare their accounts for review.
The five-year window is now the stated lookback for social media identifiers on visa forms and vetting, matching an updated request on the standard DS-160 and related application steps used globally.
That requirement has roots back in 2019, when the State Department first began asking visa applicants to list social media usernames on their forms, but the new guidance widens how far officers will dig and asks applicants to make accounts public for review.
Consular posts say officers will use publicly visible posts, profile information, and any other available online material to confirm who an applicant is and whether they meet the legal standards for admission to the United States.
Embassies in some countries have used social media checks selectively before, but the latest instruction applies the tighter screening to all student and exchange visitors at once, rather than to a narrow subset tied to specific incidents.
University officials, student groups and civil liberties groups have pushed back quickly, warning the change could chill speech, force blanket public exposure of private lives, and complicate enrollment plans for campus communities that rely on international students.
Advocates say asking people to unlock private accounts is a sharp step beyond past practice, because making accounts public exposes friends, family, and third parties who never applied for a visa. They called the new rule a serious privacy concern.
U.S. officials frame the rule as a national security measure and say officers will use every relevant piece of information available to determine admissibility, including posts and online interactions that may show involvement in activities that bar entry.
In practical terms, applicants now face a choice: make accounts and posts visible while consular staff review them, or risk adjudicators treating private accounts as gaps in information that could delay or hurt their case.
The change has ripple effects for colleges and exchange programs that recruit from abroad, since delays and stricter checks could push students to defer start dates, miss orientation windows, or choose other countries with softer entry rules.
Some embassies have also temporarily paused adding new interview appointments for F, M and J visas while posts adjust to the new screening rules and update their intake systems to capture the extra social media data.
Officials say the five-year handle list covers multiple platforms that applicants may have used, not just big-name U.S. social sites, and that officers may consult non-U.S. platforms that are widely used in the applicant’s home country.
The State Department’s move follows a period of heightened scrutiny for student and exchange visas, after earlier cases where officials flagged public content tied to protests, campus activism, or alleged support for violence as reasons to investigate applicants more closely.
For visa applicants in Nigeria, the U.S. Mission posted a short advisory reminding people that consular officers use all available information during adjudication, and that applicants should ensure their online presence is consistent with the identity and purpose stated in their application.
That advisory also noted the DS-160 and other forms have required social media identifiers in past years, though the present guidance adds a broader search and the step to make profiles public for the vetting window.
Legal experts say the real change is process and intensity, not a brand new legal test, and they expect to see court challenges and legislative interest as privacy groups and universities press lawmakers for clearer limits.
Civil liberties groups have already criticized the requirement and warned it risks overreach, saying the searches could scoop up lawful speech and lawful association that should not bar someone from a visa. They argue the policy could also disproportionately affect students from countries where online activism is common and is not illegal.
Consulates are also training staff to save or screenshot online material that seems relevant to a case, and guidance told officers to document any concerns they find in social media posts during the review. That practice aims to create a record should an adverse decision be appealed.
Officials handling visa lines say social media checks can flag identity fraud, fake academic records, or links to groups that fall under legal bars to admission, and they say those checks help protect campuses and communities from bad actors.
For many would-be students and exchange visitors, the new rule means a new round of preparation: applicants must gather usernames, review their profiles for content that might raise questions, and consider temporarily making accounts public while their application is processed.
Counselors at colleges and cultural exchange programs have published guidance on cleaning up online profiles, advising applicants to remove illegal content, correct misleading profile details, and to be ready to explain time gaps or sudden changes in account names.
Tech platforms have not been ordered to hand over passwords, and the guidance centers on usernames and publicly visible posts; applicants are not being asked to turn over login details to consular officers.
But privacy advocates say that requiring accounts to be public is close to forced disclosure, because it takes away a user’s normal control over who sees their posts and who does not, and it can reveal private networks and relationships beyond the applicant.
The new guidance also adds a broader look at contact points, asking for a history of email addresses and phone numbers used over a similar lookback period, a step tied to efforts to trace identity and contacts as part of vetting.
In several countries, including Nigeria, social media is both a public square and a private lifeline, and local advocates warn that asking people to set everything to public may put them at risk from local monitoring or reprisals back home.
Students coming from countries with a record of political repression or surveillance face a particular dilemma, because posting certain views at home might be safe there but could be used against them during a visa check abroad.
Embassy officials maintain the reviews are limited to what is necessary for visa adjudication, and that the aim is not to police political views but to ensure the person is who they say they are and does not present a security risk. Those officials point to legal bars already in U.S. immigration law that guide decisions.
Universities are watching enrollment signals closely, because a dip in incoming students from abroad can hit budgets and research programs, and because delayed visa starts can strain classroom planning and housing for new students.
Some colleges have set up hotlines to help admittees prepare documentation and to advise on social profiles, and legal clinics are fielding questions about what students should change and when to seek counsel.
The policy shift marks a broader turning point in how governments use digital traces for immigration checks, and it highlights the tradeoffs between privacy and the state’s claim of security interest at borders and consular gates.
At the end of the day, applicants who want to study or exchange in the United States will now have to plan for their online presence to be part of their application package, and consular officers will treat social media as a normal part of the background file they review.