Set socmed accounts to ‘public’, US visa applicants told

The embassy said visa applicants are required to provide social media identifiers on immigrant and non-immigrant visa application forms since 2019. (File Photo: U.S. Embassy Ghana/Facebook)

MANILA – Filipinos applying for a United States visa are told to set the privacy settings of their social media accounts to “public”.

“Effective immediately, all individuals applying for an F, M, or J non-immigrant visa are requested to adjust the privacy settings on all of their social media accounts to ‘public’ to facilitate vetting necessary to establish their identity and admissibility to the United States,” the US Embassy in Manila said in an advisory on Tuesday.

The embassy said visa applicants are required to provide social media identifiers on immigrant and non-immigrant visa application forms since 2019.

“We use all available information in our visa screening and vetting to identify visa applicants who are inadmissible to the United States, including those who pose a threat to US national security,” it said.

The US Department of Homeland Security earlier issued a bulletin stating that the ongoing Iran conflict nuclear sites caused a “heightened threat environment in the United States.”

It also warned against possible low level cyber attacks by pro-Iranian activists.