PSA: You Need To Set Your Socials To Public If You Want To Have Your U.S. Visa Approved

Applying for a U.S. visa is expensive, so you’ll want to do everything you can to have it approved. That includes checking your social media before submitting that application—because the embassy will, too. 

The U.S. Embassy in the Philippines has just announced that visa applicants for the F, M, or J non-immigrant visas are now "requested"—but really, it's more required—to set their social media accounts to public, effective immediately. 

Consular officials have reportedly been instructed to search for "any indications of hostility toward the citizens, culture, government, institutions, or founding principles of the United States."

"We use all available information in our visa screening and vetting to identify visa applicants who are inadmissible to the United States, including those who pose a threat to U.S. national security," the U.S. Embassy in the Philippines said in a statement.

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Tourists are marked safe from this new rule as the visa categories only apply to students and exchange program participants: 

Together, these categories account for over one million international students and exchange participants in the United States every year. The new policy applies globally to all nationalities—not just Filipinos. 

It's the latest development in the U.S. government's push to tighten visa screening under Donald Trump's presidency, but it isn't exactly new. Since 2019, all visa applicants have been required to provide social media handles as part of the standard application process. What's changed now is that consular officers must be able to view your content—hence the requirement for a public profile. 

Last May, the U.S. State Department suspended all F, M, and J visa appointments, resulting in delays for international students enrolling at Harvard and other universities. The visa appointments were only resumed after this new vetting procedure was implemented in June. 

It remains unclear whether failure to comply with the request to set profiles to public will result in application delays or denials, but honestly, who would want to risk finding that out?