You’ll have to share details up to 5 years
Applying for a US Visa? Well, it’s more than likely that you’ll have to share your social media presence with the US government. The requirement was first announced last year and is now fully taking effect this month as part of heightened vetting for visa applicants.
“National security is our top priority when adjudicating visa applications, and every prospective traveler and immigrant to the United States undergoes extensive security screening,” the department said in a statement to the AP. “We are constantly working to find mechanisms to improve our screening processes to protect U.S. citizens while supporting legitimate travel to the United States.”
Visa applicants will have to share their social media account names for the past five years and covers a slew of sites that weren’t mentioned in the report, but you can bet that Facebook and Twitter will be on the top of the list, as well as Instagram.
Aside from that, applicants will also have to provide email addresses, both current and previous as well as phone numbers while they travel.
The US previously only required such details from people who visited terrorist-controlled areas for obvious reasons, and the new requirement will affect around 710,000 immigrant visa applications and 14 million nonimmigrant visa applicants.
