Karachi:
Pakistani applicants for F, M or J categories of non-immigrant visas were advised on Thursday by the United States Consulates in Karachi and Lahore to publish their social media accounts for Vetting, according to a report.
“The instructions followed a similar council issued by the US Embassy in New Delhi earlier this week. The move came after President Donald Trump’s administration ordered resumption of student visa visits, accompanied by significantly stricter social media vetting of applicants.
“With effective immediately, all persons applying for an F, M or J nonimmigrant Visa are requested to adjust privacy settings to all their social media accounts to ‘public’ to facilitate vetting needed to establish their identity and assumption to the United States,” the Consulates in Instagram Post said.
The post stated that since 2019, the United States has demanded that VISA applicants provide identifiers on social media about immigrant and non-immigrant visa-applications. It added that applicants had to fill in identifiers on social media and account handles for each platform on the application form.
F and M are different student visa types, while the J-Visa is a non-immigrant visa for individuals approved to participate in Exchange Visiting Programs in the United States. “To omit social media information about your application can lead to visa denial and unjustification for future US visas,” the consulate warned.
The Trump administration paused the issuance of new educational visas late last month when the mulled new social media vetting strategies. The United States had also targeted Chinese students for special control in the midst of a tense negotiation of tariffs and the supply of rare land metals and minerals to the United States.
The Directive on the Ministry of State enabled diplomatic positions to resume the planning of interviews for educational and exchange visas, but added that consular officers would conduct a “comprehensive and thorough vetting” of all applicants applying for F, M and J-VISA.
The screening for “anti -Semitic” activity matches similar guidance given to US citizenship and immigration services during the Department of Homeland Security and has been criticized as an effort to slow down to opposition to the construction of Israeli war in Gaza.
