Visa vetting of social media ruled out

Immigration New Zealand will not follow the United States’ idea to routinely vet visa applicants’ social media accounts.

Immigration NZ area manager Stephanie Greathead ruled out a tit-fortat policy for US citizens yesterday.

The agency did check some visa applicants’ social media accounts and carried out Google searches to verify information, she said.

However, it had ‘‘no immediate plans’’ to make people list their social media profiles as part of a visa application.

On Sunday, the US State Department proposed to make all immigrant and nonimmigrant visa applicants provide details of all social media accounts they had held for the past five years.

The US Office of Management and Budget will decide to approve or deny the proposal within 60 days.

If approved, all New Zealanders applying for a business or tourist visa, a nonimmigrant working visa or a green card would be subject to social media vetting.

New Zealanders visiting the US for business or pleasure for less than three months will be exempt from the measure because we share a visa waiver programme with the US.

Another 36 countries will be exempt under the same scheme, including Australia, Japan and the United Kingdom.

The rest of the world was not exempt, including China, India and Mexico.

New Zealand journalists were not eligible for a visa waiver and must apply for a non-immigrant media work visa if they wish to enter the US for any amount of time. Therefore they would not be exempt from social media vetting.

Greathead said that under the waiver programme, US visitors to New Zealand were required to supply travel tickets to prove they planned to leave the country within three months and evidence of funds to support themselves while they are here.

If visitors were found to not be ‘‘genuine’’ by Immigration NZ, they could be denied entry into New Zealand, she said.