U.S. to dig into people’s lives for visa applications

Seeks to tap into social media for details for all types of visas

Social media details, including usernames, previous email addresses, and phone numbers, could be sought from US visa applicants in future as part of the visa vetting process. This is still at the proposal stage with the US State Department seeking public comments.

The requirement will be for all types of visas, immigrant and non-immigrant and impact nearly 15 million foreigners who apply for US visas every year. The US State Department, in documents to be published in Friday’s Federal Register website noted that it wants to get public comments on this proposal.

According to the document, one particular question lists several social media platforms and asks the visa applicant to provide any identifiers used for those platforms during the five years preceding the date of application. The proposal documents were posted on Thursday but the 60-day public comment period commences on Friday after the edition is published.

These social media checks were announced last year too. A couple of years back, Facebook chats gave information to immigration officials that some students from Hyderabad were more interested in earning money by taking up jobs instead of pursuing studies.

“The incidents that happened in the past may be the reason for officials to take the social media path. Since people share a lot of details on social media in personal chats or on posts, the actual intention of the person can be revealed. This proposal will not go forward as the public would certainly veto it,” said Subhakar Alapati, director of Global Tree Overseas Education and Immigration Consultant, Hyderabad.

While the world is debating privacy of data on social media, this proposal is seen as an intrusion into a person’s privacy. “While social media posts are a great way to really read into the character of people, everyone who vents on a public platform due to unhappiness, frustration or fear, isn’t necessarily a threat,” says Sabina Xavier, Chief Operating Officer of Y-Axis Consultancy. It’s doubtful whether such checking will do much to protect national security, but it will add to the workload of immigration officers.