A new policy for vetting the social-media accounts of all international students applying for student visas has led to confusion and concern that it will slow down an already-delayed process.
The U.S. Department of State announced last week it would resume student-visa interviews after a worldwide suspension of more than three weeks to put the new guidelines in place. With the clock ticking down to the start of the fall semester, it will be a race to handle thousands of visa applications.
The State Department issued nearly 270,000 student visas in the peak summer months last year — about 70 percent of the year’s total.
Foreign students will be required to make all social-media accounts public so that consular officers can screen them for content that is “hostile” to the United States. The idea that government officials will comb through students’ online histories has made some of them uneasy. “I don’t think of myself as a political person,” said Karin, a German student planning to study at Northeastern University in the fall. “But are they going to deny me a visa for some comment I made on Instagram when I was 14?”
The Chronicle is not naming some students because of their worries that speaking publicly could hurt their chances of receiving a visa.
Are they going to deny me a visa for some comment I made on Instagram when I was 14?
The new policy, outlined in a State Department cable to American consulates worldwide, directs consular officers to review applicants’ “entire online presence” for “any indications of hostility towards the citizens, culture, government, institutions, or founding principles of the United States.” In addition, embassies should flag any “advocacy for, aid or support for foreign terrorists, and other threats to U.S. national security” and “support for unlawful antisemitic harassment or violence.” Past political activism could also be grounds for a visa denial.
The broad wording of the directive makes it unclear what in students’ online histories could trigger scrutiny, said Sarah Spreitzer, vice president for government relations at the American Council on Education. “It’s so vague that how many students will it touch?”
International students said they were unsure what to do: Leaving social-media accounts online might make students vulnerable if consulate officials take a broad view of the new policy. But deleting accounts could raise flags by making it look like students are trying to hide something. “It might look suspicious to delete social media now,” Dan Berger, an immigration lawyer, said in an email.
In fact, the State Department cable said that accounts set to “private” could be indicative of “evasiveness or otherwise call into question the applicant’s credibility.”
Jack Masliah, a Northeastern senior from Mexico, said the uncertainty left students feeling “frozen.” Now, he wonders, “if you retweet something against some foreign policy, is that anti-American?”
Students may have personal and cultural reasons for keeping their accounts private, and unlocking them could also expose the information posted by friends and family, said Patricia Sagasti Suppes, director of global engagement at Stockton University. Government officials also may not understand the cultural nuance in students’ posts.
A Precedent
Social-media screening of visa applicants is actually a throwback to Trump’s first term. The earlier policy, however, was carried out on a case-by-case basis when visa holders entered the United States. The new review comes earlier and applies across the board to all those applying for or renewing F, M, and J visas, the visa categories for foreign students and scholars.
In the online application, students are asked to select from a pull-down menu of social-media platforms and share their handles. (The list of about 20 services such as Twitter and Weibo, a Chinese microblogging website, does not include some popular platforms like TikTok.)
College administrators contacted by The Chronicle said they were making students aware of the new policy but not trying to interpret it — both because of a lack of clarity and because of concern that doing so could be seen as political. “It’s up to the students to be aware of what the State Department has said they will be looking for when vetting accounts,” said Ronald B. Cushing, director of international services at the University of Cincinnati.
Colleges and in-country student-recruitment agents said they were closely watching consular websites for reopening of visa appointments. In some places, like China and Latin America, students have been able to schedule interviews, but in others, like India, students were still waiting for slots to be posted as of Monday, said Mallik Sundharam, vice president for enrollment management and student affairs at Illinois Institute of Technology.
Some students expressed relief at the restarting of the visa process. It “feels like a breath of fresh air after nearly a month,” said Ishwor Mahat, a student from Nepal accepted at Louisiana Tech University.
We all have dreams to further our education in the U.S. for a successful future, but now it seems all odds are against us.
Eseoghene, who plans to go to Georgia State University, said she was anxiously waiting for appointments to be available in Nigeria. She’s less worried about the social-media policy itself — she isn’t very active online, she said — than about its potential to slow down the issuance of visas. The State Department cable instructs consular officers to “take the time necessary” to fully vet applicants.
Classes at Georgia State begin in two months, Eseoghene said in an email. “We all have dreams to further our education in the U.S. for a successful future, but now it seems all odds are against us.”
The screening requirements, in addition to the three-week backlog caused by the visa-appointment freeze, could throttle what is already a bottleneck for student applicants, all of whom must complete an in-person interview. Clason, another Nigerian student, said he had been waiting since February for an available interview.
Ismael J. Betancourt Velez, assistant provost for global education and engagement at Radford University, said on Friday that an incoming student from Europe had been able to schedule an appointment — in September, after classes start.
Jay R. Ligon, director of international affairs at Louisiana Tech, said students in countries with long wait times could experience increased delays. The result could be that fewer visas will be issued, Ligon said, not because students “have questionable social-media content but because the process of vetting it will mean fewer students get fully reviewed.”
The cable instructs consulates to give preference in processing to applicants planning to attend colleges where international students make up less than 15 percent of the student body. The 1.1 million foreign students on American campuses make up less than six percent of overall enrollments. But about 200 colleges have international enrollments of more than 15 percent, including all eight Ivy League institutions.
Nell Gluckman contributed reporting to this article.
