Earlier this year, the US State Department paused issuing visas to international students. They have now restarted their issuance, but with a complication. A memo leaked to the news now instructs consular agents to review the social media and online presence of prospective international students as part of their visa application process.
While it is good that visas are once again being issued, this is another alarming twist in a long saga of stress for international students, leaving many wondering what this scrutiny entails, and how this will impact them. In this article then, we’re going to break down what exactly this order is, what it means for international students, and how this might impact you. We’ll also give advice on preparing your online presence for scrutiny. Let’s jump right in!
What Did the State Department Order?
The full text of the order has not been revealed to the public, but thanks to journalistic investigations, we have access to much of it. The gist of what is being ordered is that state department officials are to scan the social media and online presence of international students for:
- “any indications of hostility towards the citizens, culture, government, institutions or founding principles of the United States.”
- “advocacy for, aid or support for foreign terrorists and other threats to U.S. national security”
- “support for unlawful antisemitic harassment or violence.”
Our source for this is this article, which also nicely sums up the situation. The state department does note that any support shown for Hamas counts for these, but does not give further direct examples, apparently leaving it up to the discretion of the individual agents doing the review.
The cable also directs agents to flag students with a history of political activism, and to determine if they are likely to continue this in the US. This is likely in response to the protests we have seen on many college campuses surrounding the events in the Middle East, which the current administration has been concerned with, and fighting with colleges over, for some time. Political activism is not a cause for rejection, but instead a reason for agents to subject students to further review.
These new standards apply to both students entering the US for the first time, and returning students. Agents are required to take detailed notes of what they find, including screenshots. There is a note that none of these, if found, are cause for immediate disqualification, but should instead lead to further review to determine if the student in question will follow US laws and abide by the terms of their visa, though what exactly this means is unspecified.
What Does This Order Mean for Students?
The first thing we take from this is just how vague the order is. Very few of the terms are defined at all, and only one solid example is given. While this is very stressful for international students, we do not doubt it is also going to be a major pain for consular officials, who have received a major amount of work with no clear guidance on how to go about actually doing it.
Unfortunately, this means students are likely to be subjected to the whims of particular consuls and officers, and what gets through one review may not be approved by another. This is also likely to significantly extend the visa review process. Hopefully this doesn’t delay enrollments, but if you are encountering problems with this, reach out to your college now. Universities have an office of international students to support you through things like this, and they may be able to help you get started virtually if you are delayed by visa review for part of the semester.
While the memo does say none of these factors are grounds for denial on their own, our best guess is that it is the goal of the administration to limit visa access for students who support particular political positions, or who they believe may take part in protests they disapprove of once they are in the country. Thus, the biggest fear and impact factor is whether this will cause your own visa application to be denied.
How to Clean Your Social Media
So if you’re reading this, you may be concerned about your own online presence. We all have posts we may regret, or things we shared or retweeted or posted in jest that may paint us in a bad light. To that end, we’re now going to run through our advice on cleaning your social media in anticipation of undergoing one of these reviews. We will be giving two sets of advice here, for both younger students just thinking about applying, and those who may be anticipating a review imminently.
The first thing to note is that we are going to be overly cautious. Because the guidance from the State Department is so vague, it’s hard to know what exactly they will see as a problem. We are going to default to caution, which was likely one of the goals for being so vague; by not giving clear guidelines, they can induce preemptive compliance.
Begin by going through your social media, on every account tied to your name, and removing anything overtly political or controversial, especially if it shows you actively protesting something. This is true regardless of subject matter, though certain activities are more likely to be judged harshly, the wording of parts of the memo mean almost any form of political advocacy should be taken down.
You can consider deleting accounts entirely, but this is likely to be seen as suspicious, especially since they note that they are going to ask for access to your accounts. It is better to have accounts that are clean and sterile, vacation pics and celebrating with your friends, without a hint of politics.
Pseudanonymous accounts, those with a username but no attachment to your actual name, are safe so long as they are not tied to you at all. Once a pseudanonymous account is tied to your actual name, then it must be cleaned as any other social media account is.
If you are a younger student, we recommend the (somewhat old) practice of having multiple social media accounts, one under your name, and one not. Note that this only works if the accounts are not tied to each other at all; if they are, then they all must be cleaned in the same way.
Note also that they are not just checking social media, but all of your online presence. Thus if you have submitted op-eds, written articles for a school newspaper, or been involved in other online political discourse publicly, this too will be reviewed. This is likely to be much harder to take down after the fact, and so younger students should instead focus on prevention, and avoid attaching their names to things that may come back to haunt them. Publishing under pseudonyms is another old practice, and one worthy of revival.
What Happens Now?
We are still waiting to see what this order will look like in practice, and how many students will actually have their visas rejected due to these new guidelines. It is likely that, as with all new policies, it will take several attempts before the people who are administering this program get it sorted out. Thus you can expect this particular visa issuing process to be more chaotic than normal, and a number of students who should receive visas will not.
This is highly unfortunate for the students in question, and we advise any currently admitted international students to interface closely with the college you are planning on attending. These schools can’t directly influence the visa process, but they can offer resources and support.
If you are rejected, especially if you were admitted to a top US college, there are likely to be a number of international colleges who would be eager to admit you. Now these are not likely to be your own top picks, after all, you applied to colleges in the US for a reason, but they can allow you to begin your educational career on the timeline you originally planned for.
This remains a fluid situation, and we will bring you more updates as it develops.
Final Thoughts
Applying to US colleges is already challenging for international students, with many hurdles that domestic students do not face. This is just another one, though the rapidly changing guidelines and priorities of the current administration make it particularly tricky to deal with. We hope that this article has given you a solid grounding on what the situation looks like right now, and how you can go about navigating it best.
If you are concerned about your own looming college applications as an international student, and how this or other factors may impact your chances of admission, Ivy Scholars can help. We’ve helped students from around the globe get into some of the best universities in the US, and have a deep knowledge of every aspect of the international application process. Don’t wait, schedule a free consultation with us today to learn how we can make your college application process smoother.
