Many students and scholars might not realize that the U.S. government can scrutinize their social media footprint during visa applications, border screenings, immigration benefit requests, or enforcement encounters.

State Department Policy Directives

F, M, J Visa appointment capacity and new guidance on expanded social media screening

On June 18, 2025, the Department of State (DOS) instructed consulates worldwide to implement a mandatory expansion of social media vetting for all F, M, and J visa applicants (students and exchange visitors), requiring applicants to make all social media accounts public while consular officers conduct thorough reviews of their entire online presence using search engines and databases to identify "potentially derogatory information" including political activism, terrorism support, anti-Semitic activities, or "hostile attitudes" toward the United States. F, M, and J visa applications will undergo a two-step process involving standard eligibility review followed by enhanced vetting under INA 221(g) administrative processing.

The June 18, 2025 DOS cable that delivered the guidance told consulates that they had five business days from the date of the cable to implement the new protocols, after which they could begin opening up new visa appointments (which had been halted since May 27, 2025). The fifth business day following June 18 would be June 26, 2025 (not counting the day the cable was issued and taking into account the intervening weekend and the federal holiday of Juneteenth on June 19). Although visa appointment scheduling is resuming, processing capacity may be reduced due to the resource-intensive nature of the expanded screening requirements. This may translate into longer appointment wait and visa processing times.

Visit NAFSA's page for links and to keep up to date on this topic.

DHS Social Media Screening for Immigration Benefits

In an April 9, 2025 news release the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) said that U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS):

"... will begin considering aliens’ antisemitic activity on social media and the physical harassment of Jewish individuals as grounds for denying immigration benefit requests. This will immediately affect aliens applying for lawful permanent resident status, foreign students and aliens affiliated with educational institutions linked to antisemitic activity... Consistent with President Trump’s executive orders on Combatting Anti-Semitism, Additional Measures to Combat Anti-Semitism and Protecting the United States from Foreign Terrorists and Other National Security and Public Safety Threats, DHS will enforce all relevant immigration laws to the maximum degree, to protect the homeland from extremists and terrorist aliens, including those who support antisemitic terrorism, violent antisemitic ideologies and antisemitic terrorist organizations such as Hamas, Palestinian Islamic Jihad, Hezbollah, or Ansar Allah aka: 'the Houthis.'... Under this guidance, USCIS will consider social media content that indicates an alien endorsing, espousing, promoting, or supporting antisemitic terrorism, antisemitic terrorist organizations, or other antisemitic activity as a negative factor in any USCIS discretionary analysis when adjudicating immigration benefit requests. This guidance is effective immediately."

Social Media Questions on Visa and Immigration Forms

The U.S. government can collect social media information on its application forms. For example:

• Plans to collect social media identifiers on USCIS forms. March 5, 2025. USCIS published a notice in the Federal Register at 90 FR 11324 (March 5, 2025) titled Generic Clearance for the Collection of Social Media Identifier(s) on Immigration Forms. The notice states: "This collection of information is necessary to comply with section 2 of the Executive order (E.O.) entitled “Protecting the United States from Foreign Terrorists and Other National Security and Public Safety Threats”, which directs implementation of uniform vetting standards and requires the collection of all information necessary for a rigorous vetting and screening of all grounds of inadmissibility or bases for the denial of immigration-related benefits. In a review of information collected for admission and benefit decisions, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) identified the need to collect social media identifiers (“handles”) and associated social media platform names from applicants to enable and help inform identity verification, national security and public safety screening, and vetting, and related inspections." USCIS will accept comments for 60 days, until May 5, 2025.
• DOS Form DS-160 Visa Application. In 2019, the Department of State (DOS) added a "social media" question to Form DS-160, the standard online application used by individuals to apply for a nonimmigrant visa. The item requires applicants to use a drop-down list to indicate the social media platforms that they have used during the five years preceding their visa application, and to provide any identifiers or handles they used on those platforms. DOS also added a similar item to the Form DS-260 immigrant visa application. See NAFSA's page Social Media Question on Visa Applications. The current Form DS-160 item requires applicants to use a drop-down list to indicate the social media platforms they've used during the five years preceding their visa application, and to provide any identifiers or handles they used on those platforms. The item also contains an optional free-text field for applicants to provide identifiers associated with any other social media platforms during the last five years other than those platforms listed in the drop-down menu.
• DHS SORN Updated A-File System of Records to Include Social Media Information. On September 18, 2017, the Department of Homeland Security published a System of Records Notice (SORN) that updates the list of information that may appear in an individual's Alien File (A-file) (82 FR 43556 (September 18, 2017). One item added to the types of information an A-File might contain was "social media handles, aliases, associated identifiable information, and search results." DHS gave the public until October 18, 2017 to comment on this SORN. This was not a new "information collection," but rather an update of the list of information types the government had already been authorized to collect in certain circumstances (such as on Form DS-5535 and the ESTA Visa Waiver Program form), and which therefore might be stored in an individual's A-File if so collected.
• ESTA Optional Question on Social Media Usage. Since December, 2016, the ESTA application for Visa Waiver Program travelers includes an optional question that reads "Please enter information associated with your online presence-Provider/Platform-Social media identifier."