The US government under Donald Trump, in May 2025, temporarily halted the scheduling of new visa interviews for foreign students hoping to study in the country.
The State Department, in the statement, which announced the suspension of the visa interviews, said it needed to “ensure that those applying for admission into the United States do not intend to harm Americans and our national interests”.
Before that, the Trump administration had revoked the student visas of hundreds of foreign nationals, slashed funding for science and research programmes, arrested and tried to deport foreign nationals involved in pro-Palestine campus activism, and suspended student visa appointments.
Among the institutions scrutinised by the president is Harvard University, which had $2.65bn (£1.96bn) in grants frozen.
Trump also tried to revoke Harvard’s ability to enroll international students, though that move has been temporarily blocked by a U.S. federal judge while the matter is being heard in court.
The development has left many international students who are planning to come to the US for the 2025-2026 academic year scrambling and in limbo.
More than 1.1 million international students from over 210 countries were enrolled in US colleges in the 2023-24 school year, according to Open Doors, an organisation that collects data on foreign students.
However, on Thursday, June 19, 2025, the US announced that it is resuming the suspended process for foreigners applying for student visas but will now require monitoring of the social media activities of the applicants.
The U.S. Department of State said all applicants will now be required to unlock their social media accounts for review in an attempt to expand screening and vetting for visa applicants.
The department’s spokesperson, in a statement, said a U.S. visa is a privilege, not a right.
“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 U.S. national security.
“Under new guidance, the department will conduct a comprehensive and thorough vetting, including online presence, of all student and exchange visitor applicants in the F, M, and J nonimmigrant classifications.
“To facilitate this vetting, all applicants for F, M, and J nonimmigrant visas will be instructed to adjust the privacy settings on all of their social media profiles to public.”
Now, the question that many are asking is what impact this online qualification process will have on those who want to study in the United States, especially whether this process could lead to the United States not granting visas to such people?
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Who will the new US student visa guidelines affect?
As the processing of student visas is reopened, all applicants who apply for F visas, which are primarily used by students, are affected.
Applicants for the M visas, used for vocational students, and the J visas, used by exchange students, will also be impacted, a State Department spokesperson said.
The State Department said it was “committed to protecting the nation and its citizens by upholding the highest standards of national security and public safety through its visa process”.
It also advised visa applicants to check the relevant embassy or consulate website for appointment availability.
“Every visa adjudication is a national security decision,” the statement stressed.
As said earlier, applicants for student and exchange visas will now have their “entire online presence” vetted. So, from now on, every tweet, post, or comment could determine whether you get approved to study in the US.
Officials will be digging through years of your digital footprint, and keeping your accounts private won’t help – they might see that as an attempt to hide questionable activity. Anything that suggests hostility toward the U.S., support for banned groups, or extremist views could get your application denied instantly.
The rules apply immediately to all current and future applicants, giving consulates just five days to start enforcing them.
“During the vetting, you simply are looking for any potentially derogatory information about the applicant,” the cable said, but gave as an example: “You might discover on social media that an applicant endorsed Hamas or its activities.”
“For applicants who demonstrate a history of political activism, especially when it is associated with violence or with the views and activities described above, you must consider the likelihood they would continue such activity in the United States and, if so, whether such activity is consistent with the nonimmigrant visa classification they seek,” a cable obtained by CNN said.
What are the Social media posts that can prevent you from student in US?
The new guidance did not specify what exactly would constitute “hostile attitudes” that stop you from getting a student visa to study in the US, but the director of Peaceway Travel and Holidays, Oluwatobi Omojeso, speaking to the BBC, said some of the things include;
- Talking about anything related to online violence
- Talking about what is happening between the US government and the government of another country can be confusing for people.
- Anyone who does such a thing has violated US immigration laws.
The international travel expert, while noting that the new rule could hurt those seeking visas, explained that students from abroad often protest against the US government, which is one of the reasons why the government took the step.
He said, “In a study by the US government, they found that this behavior is common among students. What they do is that before they even grant students a visa, they first check to see if they have ever engaged in such behavior.”
“This step is to reduce the number of visas they issue… if they do issue a visa, they can still turn that person back when they arrive at their gate because the gatekeeper has the power to let someone in or not.”
Omojeso said that if a country’s government says it does not want something, anyone who obtains a visa for the country must want what the country’s government wants.
“My advice to people is to be careful what they write online because what people write is used to judge the kind of person they are.
“With our experience in this field for many years, we have seen that they often ask for the website name of the person registering for a visa.
“And it’s clear that if they don’t want to check the website, they won’t ask for it.
“We have found that it is filled with something they use to determine whether.”
