State Department Broadens Social Media Checks to More Foreign Visa Categories

The State Department will require additional foreign visa applicants, including media reps and certain Canadian and Mexican business travelers, to make their social-media accounts public for screening.

According to a recently obtained internal memorandum, the State Department is expanding its social-media vetting policy to include more categories of foreign visa seekers. The new rule applies to foreign media representatives and qualified nationals from Mexico and Canada entering the United States for business under the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement, along with their dependents. The department states it relies on all available information to flag applicants who could be inadmissible or threaten national security or public safety, and it applies this standard uniformly across visa types.

Existing categories already subject to social-media screening include diplomatic and official visas, temporary workers, trainees, exchange visitors, cultural exchange participants, religious workers, and witnesses, informants, and victims. All affected applicants must set their social-media profiles to public or open before their cases are reviewed. The memo emphasizes that each visa decision is fundamentally a national-security judgment and that the United States remains vigilant throughout the issuance process.