State Dept. pauses interviews for student and exchange visitor visas to do additional vetting of social media accounts
A State Department cable dated May 27, 2025, which is not public but has been reviewed by numerous media outlets, orders U.S. embassies and consulates abroad to pause all new interviews for foreign nationals who are applying for a nonimmigrant (i.e. temporary) visa to come to the United States in the visa categories of F-1 (for foreign students participating an academic program), J-1 (for participants in the State Department’s Exchange Visitor Program), and M-1 (for international students pursuing vocational or other non-academic studies). The ostensible reason offered is so that State Department officials can conduct additional vetting of visas applicants, by reviewing their social media accounts. According to reports, the cable reads: “Effective immediately, in preparation for an expansion of required social media screening and vetting, consular sections should not add any additional student or exchange visitor (F, M, and J) visa appointment capacity until further guidance is issued [in a separate, forthcoming telegram], which we anticipate in the coming days.”
The State Department already requires the disclosure of social media accounts on the main visa application form, and Secretary of State Marco Rubio issued a previous cable on March 25 that instructed consular officers to review the social media content of visa applicants. That cable instructed officers to refer certain visa applicants to the “fraud prevention unit” for a “mandatory social media check.” As of yet, it is not clear what criteria found in social media accounts would trigger a rejection of a visa, and it is unclear how long the pause will last before the State Department resumes visa interviews.
Impact: The U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has a web-based database used to track and monitor international students and exchange visitors, known as the Student and Exchange Visitor Information System (SEVIS). According to DHS, the total number of SEVIS records for active F-1 and M-1 students was 1,503,649 in calendar year 2023, and according to State Department data which appear to have been taken offline recently by the Trump administration, there were nearly 300,000 J-1 exchange visitors in 2023. Foreign students are estimated to make up about 6% of the total U.S. student population. According to an industry association, NAFSA, the Association of International Educators, foreign students they accounted for $43.8 billion in economic activity and supported 378,000 jobs in the United States during the 2023-2024 school year.
There’s no question that this action by Trump’s State Department will discourage foreign students from enrolling in U.S. universities, leading to a brain drain of talent from U.S. universities and employers, and negatively impact the economy. It is not just foreign students who will be impacted by the new pause on interviews for F-1, J-1, and M-1 visa applicants. The J-1 visa is made up of about a dozen programs, which include a handful that are primarily work programs, for instance for visiting professors, physicians, au pairs, camp counselors, interns and trainees, and the Summer Work Travel program, which employers use to hire over 100,000 students from abroad every year to work in low-wage jobs like restaurants, swimming pools, and amusement parks.
https://www.epi.org/policywatch/state-department-pauses-interviews-for-student-and-exchange-visitor-visas-to-do-additional-vetting-of-social-media-accounts/