Nigeria: US Resumes Student Visa Processing, Mandates Social Media Review for Applicants

The guidelines will affect all applicants for F visas, which are mainly issued to students.

Foreigners from Nigeria and other countries applying for student visas in the US will now be required to unlock their social media accounts for review.

The US State Department announced on Wednesday that it is restarting its student visa application process after a three-week suspension.

PREMIUM TIMES reported in May that the US temporarily suspended the scheduling of new interviews for student visa applicants worldwide as it considers strict vetting of applicants’ social media profiles.

The State Department, on Wednesday, disclosed that it had rescinded this decision, while noting that new applicants who refuse to set their social media accounts to “public” for review can be rejected.

It also declared that consular officers will be on the lookout for posts and messages that could be deemed hostile to the United States, its government, culture, institutions or founding principles.

The guidelines will affect all applicants for F visas, which are mainly issued to students.

Those applying for M visas, intended for vocational students, and J visas, used by exchange visitors, will also be affected.

“It is an expectation from American citizens that their government will make every effort to make our country safer, and that is exactly what the Trump Administration is doing every single day,” a State Department official said, according to the BBC.

This new policy is considered the latest of the government’s efforts to control foreign students’ entry to American schools over claims that they have contributed to an atmosphere that promotes antisemitism.

The Trump-led administration has been pressuring elite US universities to change their race-conscious admission policies.

Last month, US authorities revoked Harvard University’s ability to enrol international students by revoking its Student and Exchange Visitor Program certification.

The Department of Homeland Security attributed this to the University’s refusal to comply with its requests for the behavioural records of student visa holders. It had earlier frozen $2.3 billion in federal funds to the university. Harvard has challenged most of such decisions in court and has gotten judicial reprieve in many cases.

The US has also revoked the visas of hundreds of international students, including some from Nigeria.