New Delhi: In a sweeping new move aimed at enhancing national security, the U.S. Embassy in India has announced that all visa applicants must now provide usernames or handles from every social media platform used over the last five years on their DS-160 visa application form. The embassy emphasized that failing to provide this information could lead to visa denial and future ineligibility.
“Visa applicants are required to list all social media usernames or handles of every platform they have used from the last 5 years on the DS-160 visa application form. Applicants certify that the information in their visa application is true and correct before they sign and submit,” the U.S. Embassy India posted on X (formerly Twitter).
“Omitting social media information could lead to visa denial and ineligibility for future visas,” it further warned.
The policy is part of the Trump administration’s renewed push to tighten immigration vetting, aimed at what it calls “restoring integrity” to a system previously weakened under President Joe Biden.
Earlier this week, the embassy also issued a special directive for student visa applicants: “Effective immediately, all individuals applying for an F, M, or J nonimmigrant visa are requested to adjust the privacy settings on all of their social media accounts to the public to facilitate the vetting necessary to establish their identity and admissibility to the United States under US law.”
This means U.S. consular officers will actively scrutinize online activity for any content deemed hostile toward American citizens, institutions, culture, values, or founding principles.
The move comes after the State Department resumed student visa processing, following a temporary halt on new interviews and applications for F, M, and J visas, ordered by the Trump administration last month.
U.S. officials have also blamed the previous administration for “loosely vetting” migrants and allowing fraud to creep into the system.
