The suspension of student visa appointment scheduling in the U.S. under President Donald Trump’s presidency: State Department guidance on expanded social media vetting
President Donald Trump’s previous administration stepped up scrutiny of all visa applicants, introducing reviews of their social media accounts. The policy remained during President Joe Biden’s administration.
An extended pause in scheduling student visas could lead to delays that may disrupt college, boarding-school or exchange students’ plans to enroll in summer and fall terms.
A downturn in enrollment of international students could hurt university budgets. To make up for cuts in federal research funding, some colleges shifted to enrolling more international students, who often pay full tuition.
A US official said Tuesday that the suspension does not apply to applicants who already had their interviews scheduled. The official spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the document.
A cable signed by Secretary of State Marco Rubio and obtained by The Associated Press says the State Department plans to issue guidance on expanded social media vetting.
The cable says that if there is an expansion of required social media screening and vetting the consulate sections should not add any more student or exchange visitor visa appointment capacity.
Asked about the suspension at a briefing Tuesday, State Department spokesperson Tammy Bruce said the U.S. uses every available resource to vet people applying for visas.
Harvard was removed from the program that allows schools to sponsor foreign students for visas after the Trump administration revoked its ability to enroll international students. A federal judge has blocked that attempt for now.
The State Department has stopped scheduling new visa interviews for foreign students hoping to study in the U.S., while it screens their activity on social media.
The US State Department will work with the Dept of Homeland Security to ” aggressively revocation visas for Chinese students and those with connections to the Chinese Communist Party” under the leadership of President Trump. “We will also revise visa criteria to enhance scrutiny of all future visa applications from the People’s Republic of China and Hong Kong.”
Rubio did not define what he meant by “critical fields,” but he likely means students working in areas like semiconductor engineer or aerospace where the U.S. and China are technological rivals. The first Trump administration revoked the visas of thousands of graduate-level Chinese students because of their research into fields that may have dual-use applications.
China’s foreign ministry this week called on the U.S. to “protect the legitimate rights and interests of international students, including those of Chinese students.”
For decades, China was the biggest source of international students to the U.S., but those figures have declined steadily after tensions with the U.S. worsened and a global coronavirus pandemic temporarily closed borders. The number of students from India surpassed those from China.