Starting from October 1, international media professionals, Mexican and Canadian specialists, and their family members accompanying them will be subject to compulsory examination of their public social media profiles during the US non-immigrant visa application process.
The Department of State asserted that all visa determinations constitute inherent national security assessments, characterizing this expansion as an essential initiative to detect potentially excludable persons who could represent a danger to public welfare or national security.
Since 2019, the US government has solicited social media identifiers on application documentation. The mandate for mandatory public disclosure represents an extension of preexisting policy measures that already mandate evaluation of H-1B specialty occupation workers, F-1 and M-1 academic students, J-1 cultural exchange participants, and multiple diplomatic and humanitarian visa categories.
