Bengaluru students scrub social media for US visa applications

US visa applicants in Bengaluru are deleting past social media posts related to politics, religion and social matters. Many have also unfollowed activists, political figures, and outspoken friends. This follows the mounting scrutiny of international students applying for US visas.

On Monday, the US Embassy in India announced that all applicants for F, M, or J non-immigrant visas must make their social media profiles public for the purpose of identification and admissibility. On Thursday, it added that applicants must list all social media usernames used in the past five years on the DS-160 visa form; failing to disclose this information could result in visa denial or future ineligibility.

A man who has applied for an undergraduate economics programme in the US has halved his social media activity and is curating a “neutral” online image. “I mostly post about hobbies like books and music, and follow study pages. I have deleted posts about protests, political rallies, and anything that could seem anti-establishment. I’ve asked friends not to tag me on political posts or memes,” he says.

An applicant who plans to pursue a master’s in computer science has stopped sharing political satire and commenting on trending topics like protests until her visa process is complete. Her social media accounts now look “bland”, focused on tech news, academic achievements, sports, and occasional travel or food posts. “I scrolled through my old Instagram and Twitter posts and removed anything even mildly political, critical of the government, or tied to hot-button issues. I also unfollowed a few activist accounts,” she says. She’s now double-checking her LinkedIn activity too.

Aditya K received his student visa before social media screening became a major mandate. But he describes the anxiety his friends are feeling: “With no metric for how their social media profiles will be judged, they are deleting posts from the past year or two, ‘unliking’ reels even. Students who aren’t very active online fear that visa officers might assume they are disclosing dummy accounts.”

Social media counselling

Education consultancies are fielding calls from anxious students and their parents on how to manage their online presence.

According to Uma Aswani, who runs an eponymous education consultancy in Dollars Colony, the US is the only country screening social media for visa applicants, and the development is not new. She says earlier social media checks were random; now they are planning it for every applicant. Her team started getting such “panic” calls after US president Donald Trump tried to bar international students from Harvard.

At Gradding.com, a hybrid platform with 18% of its US-bound students from Bengaluru, a quarter of all queries in the past two months have been about managing one's digital footprint — a sharp rise over previous years. Founder Mamta Shekhawat says this year's first such call came in in January, at the start of the admission cycle. “We began counselling students on social media vetting in late 2022, after noticing a shift in university admission patterns and student feedback,” she adds. Parents, she adds, are especially keen for their child’s online presence to reflect their achievements and positive characteristics.

At Binita Parekh Overseas Education Experts, Dickenson Road, students are asked to keep their social media free of political, religious, or war-related content — right from the first enquiry call. So current calls are more about clarification than panic. “Some ask whether they should delete multiple accounts they created on various platforms when they were 14 or so. We tell them to be transparent,” says founder Binita Parekh. Even without formal advice, students are already wary of what they post. According to Binita, this could be driven by parental involvement in maximising visa acceptance, as well as a broader global climate of speech crackdowns.

Dos and don'ts

These experts advise students to scrub their profiles of hardline political views, religious disrespect, criticism of US affairs, or argumentative exchanges. “Don’t share anything on controversial issues unless you are able to participate in proper, respectful discussions regarding the same,” says Mamta. Instead, showcase academic and extracurricular accomplishments, leadership experiences, interest in the arts, and travel photos with family and friends. Rakesh S Malagithi, director of Study Next Overseas, Jayanagar, says compliance with such instructions is particularly high among Bengalureans, reaching up to 85%. This, he says, is likely due to greater parental involvement in their admission process and a general fear of government policies.

While Uma agrees students have the right to freedom of expression, she says “the visa officers don’t want troublemakers, rallyists or protestors”. They are looking for students who are prudent, responsible, and follow the rules, she adds.

Malagithi says that the US visa process has become far more stringent. “Under Joe Biden, interviews used to last a maximum of two minutes. Recently, our students sat through interviews of seven to eight minutes. The US is making sure it admits technically sound, skilled candidates.” He feels the point of social media vetting is not to judge the character of an applicant, but to gauge what they are talking about the US.