US resumes visas for foreign students but demands access to social media
accounts
[June 19, 2025]
By MATTHEW LEE and ALBEE ZHANG
WASHINGTON (AP) — The U.S. State Department said Wednesday it is
restarting the suspended process for foreigners applying for student
visas but all applicants will now be required to unlock their social
media accounts for government review.
The department said 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.
In a notice made public Wednesday, the department said it had rescinded
its May suspension of student visa processing but said new applicants
who refuse to set their social media accounts to “public” and allow them
to be reviewed may be rejected. It said a refusal to do so could be a
sign they are trying to evade the requirement or hide their online
activity.
The Trump administration last month temporarily halted the scheduling of
new visa interviews for foreign students hoping to study in the U.S.
while preparing to expand the screening of their activity on social
media, officials said.
Students around the world have been waiting anxiously for U.S.
consulates to reopen appointments for visa interviews, as the window
left to book their travel and make housing arrangements narrows ahead of
the start of the school year.
On Wednesday afternoon, a 27-year-old Ph.D. student in Toronto was able
to secure an appointment for a visa interview next week. The student, a
Chinese national, hopes to travel to the U.S. for a research internship
that would start in late July. “I’m really relieved,” said the student,
who spoke on condition of being identified only by his surname, Chen,
because he was concerned about being targeted. “I’ve been refreshing the
website couple of times every day.”
Students from China, India, Mexico and the Philippines have posted on
social media sites that they have been monitoring visa booking websites
and closely watching press briefings of the State Department to get any
indication of when appointment scheduling might resume.
In reopening the visa process, the State Department also told consulates
to prioritize students hoping to enroll at colleges where foreigners
make up less than 15% of the student body, a U.S. official familiar with
the matter said. The official spoke on condition of anonymity to detail
information that has not been made public.
Foreign students make up more than 15% of the total student body at
almost 200 U.S. universities, according to an Associated Press analysis
of federal education data from 2023. Most are private universities,
including all eight Ivy League schools. But that criteria also includes
26 public universities, including the University of Illinois and
Pennsylvania State University. Looking only at undergraduate students,
foreign students make up more than 15% of the population at about 100
universities, almost all of them private.
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Chinese students wait outside the U.S. Embassy for their visa
application interviews, in Beijing on May 2, 2012. (AP
Photo/Alexander F. Yuan, File)
International students in the U.S. have been facing increased
scrutiny on several fronts. In the spring, the Trump administration
revoked permission to study in the U.S. for thousands of students,
including some involved only in traffic offenses, before abruptly
reversing course. The government also expanded the grounds on which
foreign students can have their legal status terminated.
As part of a pressure campaign targeting Harvard University, the
Trump administration has moved to block foreign students from
attending the Ivy League school, which counts on international
students for tuition dollars and a quarter of its enrollment. Trump
has said Harvard should cap its foreign enrollment at 15%.
This latest move to vet students' social media, the State Department
said Wednesday, "will ensure we are properly screening every single
person attempting to visit our country.”
In internal guidance sent to consular officers, the department said
they should be looking for “any indications of hostility toward the
citizens, culture, government, institutions, or founding principles
of the United States.”
Jameel Jaffer, executive director at the Knight First Amendment
Institute at Columbia University, said the new policy evokes the
ideological vetting of the Cold War, when prominent artists and
intellectuals were excluded from the U.S.
“This policy makes a censor of every consular officer, and it will
inevitably chill legitimate political speech both inside and outside
the United States," Jaffer said.
The Trump administration also has called for 36 countries to commit
to improving vetting of travelers or face a ban on their citizens
visiting the United States. A weekend diplomatic cable sent by the
State Department says the countries have 60 days to address U.S.
concerns or risk being added to a travel ban that now includes 12
nations.
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AP Education Writer Collin Binkley contributed to this report.
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