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The U.S. State Department says it’s restarting the suspended process for foreigners applying for pupil visas but says each applicants volition present beryllium required to unlock their societal media accounts for review
ByMATTHEW LEE AP diplomatic writer
WASHINGTON -- The U.S. State Department said Wednesday it is restarting the suspended process for foreigners applying for pupil visas but each applicants volition present beryllium required to unlock their social media accounts for authorities review.
The section said consular officers volition beryllium connected the lookout for posts and messages that could beryllium deemed hostile to the United States, its government, culture, institutions oregon founding principles.
In a announcement made nationalist Wednesday, the section said it had rescinded its May suspension of pupil visa processing but said caller applicants who garbage to acceptable their societal media accounts to “public” and let them to beryllium reviewed whitethorn beryllium rejected. It said a refusal to bash truthful could beryllium a motion they are trying to evade the request oregon fell their online activity.
The Trump medication past period temporarily halted the scheduling of caller visa interviews for foreign students hoping to survey successful the U.S. portion preparing to grow the screening of their enactment connected societal media, officials said.
Students astir the satellite person been waiting anxiously for U.S. consulates to reopen appointments for visa interviews, arsenic the model near to publication their question and marque lodging arrangements narrows up of the commencement of the schoolhouse year.
Students from China, India, Mexico and the Philippines person posted connected societal media sites that they person been refreshing visa booking websites and intimately watching property briefings of the State Department to get immoderate denotation of erstwhile assignment bookings mightiness resume.
“Under caller guidance, consular officers volition behaviour a broad and thorough vetting of each pupil and speech visitant applicants,” the section said successful a statement.
“To facilitate this vetting” applicants “will beryllium asked to set the privateness settings connected each their societal media profiles to ‘public,’” it said. “The enhanced societal media vetting volition guarantee we are decently screening each azygous idiosyncratic attempting to sojourn our country.”
In interior guidance sent to consular officers, the section said they should beryllium looking for “any indications of hostility toward the citizens, culture, government, institutions, oregon founding principles of the United States.”
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AP writer Albee Zhang contributed to this report.
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