₦airaland Forum

The Trump administration has ordered US embassies worldwide to immediately stop scheduling visa interviews for foreign students as it prepares to implement comprehensive social media screening for all international applicants.

A Tuesday state department cable instructs consular sections to pause adding “any additional student or exchange visitor (F, M, and J) visa appointment capacity until further guidance is issued” within days.

The directive, first reported by Politico and now confirmed by the Guardian, could severely delay visa processing and hurt universities – many of which Donald Trump accuses of having far-left ideologies – that rely heavily on foreign students for revenue.

“The department is conducting a review of existing operations and processes for screening and vetting of student and exchange visitor visa applicants,” the cable reads. Officials plan to issue guidance on “expanded social media vetting for all such applicants”.

The freeze is a further escalation from current screening measures, which have primarily targeted students who participated in pro-Palestinian campus protests. Since March, consular officers have been required to conduct mandatory social media reviews looking for evidence of support for “terrorist activity or a terrorist organization” which could be as broad as showing support for the Palestinian cause, according to a cable obtained by the Guardian at the time. That directive required officers to take screenshots of “potentially derogatory” content for permanent records, even if posts were later deleted.

The new expansion would apply social media vetting to all student visa applicants, not just those flagged for activism. Under the screening process, consular officers would examine applicants’ posts, shares, and comments across platforms such as Instagram, X, and TikTok for content they deem to be threatening to national security, which has since been tied in to the Trump administration’s stance on combating antisemitism.

Rubio told senators last week that his department has revoked visas numbering “probably in the thousands at this point”, up from more than 300 reported in March. “I don’t know the latest count, but we probably have more to do,” he said.

There are more than one million foreign students in the United States, contributing nearly $43.8bn to the US economy and supporting more than 378,000 jobs in 2023 to 2024, according to NAFSA. The visa freeze threatens to compound existing challenges facing higher education institutions already experiencing declining international enrollment.

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio has ordered all US embassies and consulates around the world to halt interviews for new student visas for foreign nationals. According to the report, the Trump administration is preparing to conduct a comprehensive review of the social media accounts of all foreigners applying for student visas to the US

MufasaLion:
Trump is biting more than he can chew. Seems he's the one that's crazy and not Putin.

Many universities rely heavily on funds from international students.

Righteousness2:
While you are chewing more than what you can bite.
You just hide in one chicken talking Dust and what you know nothing about.

CoronaVirusPro:
The dumbest president in the world!

One thing I am just loving about it all is that, prior to elections, some people thought they will be excluded from the wrath of Trump, but now, EVERYONE is getting impacted 🤣🤣🤣🤣.

FEMA now useless! Hurricane ravaged areas are helpless

Mass layoffs irrespective of your political beliefs

Big cut to Medicaid, Medicare and Snap benefit in new big bill 🤣🤣🤣

Ministry of education stabbed and handed off to the state, who will now deliver education to the private sector.

Consumer protection gutted! Financial institutions having their best years.

Everyone one in America should get his/her own plate, Y’all be served your own share of the menace.

SpatialKing:
If you don't have anything questionable on social media you don't have anything to worry...

NSNO:
That's what they said when he started deporting people, now both legal and illegal migrants are being deported. Trump is mad but you people don't want to admit it because he's against lgbtq stuff. Well the things we are seeing now, you people will see it in a few years. Na Americans I pity for.

MufasaLion:
Trump is biting more than he can chew. Seems he's the one that's crazy and not Putin.

Many universities rely heavily on funds from international students.

Nackzy:
Mad Man @ work, if his predecessors were doing like he's doing, American would have lost world power status since

CoronaVirusPro:
The dumbest president in the world!

One thing I am just loving about it all is that, prior to elections, some people thought they will be excluded from the wrath of Trump, but now, EVERYONE is getting impacted 🤣🤣🤣🤣.

FEMA now useless! Hurricane ravaged areas are helpless

Mass layoffs irrespective of your political beliefs

Big cut to Medicaid, Medicare and Snap benefit in new big bill 🤣🤣🤣

Ministry of education stabbed and handed off to the state, who will now deliver education to the private sector.

Consumer protection gutted! Financial institutions having their best years.

Everyone one in America should get his/her own plate, Y’all be served your own share of the menace.

MufasaLion:
Trump is biting more than he can chew. Seems he's the one that's crazy and not Putin.

Many universities rely heavily on funds from international students.

omoredia:
It is ur power? Let then lose it so that Nigeria will have chance to be world power