ISLAMABAD: The United States consulates in Karachi and Lahore on Thursday requested all students and exchange visa applicants to make their social media accounts public for vetting, following similar instructions from the US Embassy in Delhi earlier this week, Dawn.com reported.

“Effective immediately, all individuals applying for an F, M, or J nonimmigrant 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 on Instagram.

The consulates added that, since 2019, the US has required visa applicants to provide their social media identifiers on application forms.

“Omitting social media information on your application could lead to visa denial and ineligibility for future US visas,” the consulates warned.

The requirement follows a Trump administration directive on Wednesday to resume student visa appointments while tightening social media screening to identify applicants who may be hostile toward the United States, according to an internal State Department cable reviewed by Reuters.

The State Department cable, dated June 18, instructs US consular officers to conduct “comprehensive and thorough vetting” of all students and exchange visitor applicants to identify those who “bear hostile attitudes toward our citizens, culture, government, institutions or founding principles”.

F and M visas cater to distinct student categories, whereas J visas are designated for exchange visitor program participants. The Trump administration had ordered its missions abroad on May 27 to stop scheduling new appointments for student and exchange visitor visa applicants, saying the State Department was set to expand social media vetting of foreign students.

Published in Dawn, June 27th, 2025