SOCIAL MEDIA MAY RUIN YOUR PLANS
Would-be visitors to the US may soon have to hand over all their social-media user names as part of their visa applications.
The US state department has proposed that applicants for both immigrant and nonimmigrant visas be required to disclose all their online identities used in the past five years.
The state department said in a statement: “Maintaining robust screening standards for visa applicants is a dynamic practice that must adapt to emerging threats … Collecting this additional information will strengthen our process for vetting these applicants and confirming their identity.”
If passed, the new rule is expected to affect about 14.7 million people annually.
Applicants would also be asked for five years of phone numbers, e-mail addresses and travel history, and to say if they had any relatives involved in terrorist activity.