Islamabad (TDI): Pakistani applicants for the F, M, or J categories of non-immigrant visas were advised by the United States consulates in Karachi and Lahore on Thursday to make their social media accounts public for vetting.
The instructions followed similar advice issued by the US Embassy in New Delhi earlier this week.
The move came after President Donald Trump’s administration ordered the resumption of student visa appointments, accompanied by significantly stricter social media vetting of applicants.
“Effective immediately, all individuals applying for an F, M, or J non-immigrant 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,” the consulates said in an Instagram post.
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The post stated that since 2019, the US has required visa applicants to provide social media identifiers on immigrant and non-immigrant visa application forms.
It added that applicants must fill out social media identifiers and account handles for each platform on the application form.
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F and M are different student visa types, while the J visa is a non-immigrant visa for individuals approved to participate in exchange visitor programs in the US.
“Omitting social media information on your application could lead to visa denial and ineligibility for future US visas,” the consulate warned.
Farkhund Yousafzai is an Associate Editor at The Diplomatic Insight.
