The United States State Department (DOS) has announced that, beginning on December 15, 2025, consular officers adjudicating H-1B and H-4 visa stamp applications will conduct the same “online presence review” that has been conducted for F, M, and J visa applicants since June of this year. We reported on this review in our Alert of June 23, 2025.
The DOS requires applicants to indicate in Form DS-160, the nonimmigrant visa application form, certain information about their use of online social media. This includes (1) social media platforms used within the last five years, even if the applicant no longer uses them; (2) usernames or handles for each platform, with a platform URL; and (3) information for all accounts used by the applicant, including those that are private, deactivated, or deleted. Passwords for social media accounts are not required. As part of the visa application review process, H-1B and H-4 visa applicants will be required to adjust the privacy settings on all their social media accounts to ‘public’ to facilitate review and vetting by a consular officer.
The purpose of the consulates’ expansion of H-1B and H-4 visa applicant’s online presence review is to identify applicants who may be inadmissible to the United States by posing a threat to national security or public safety. DOS has not provided any clarity on the type of social media content that may be considered to reflect such a threat, but vetting instructions previously issued to consular officers asked them to identify indications of “hostility toward the citizens, culture, government, institutions, or founding principles of the United States” or of aid or support for designated foreign terrorists and other threats to U.S. national security or unlawful antisemitic harassment or violence. A “history of political activism” may also be considered problematic by a consular officer. If evidence of such a threat is identified, the visa application may be denied or referred for a security advisory opinion or other investigation.
Given the broad scope of online social media activity that may be considered evidence of a threat to national security or public safety, all applicants for H-1B and H-4 visas after December 15 of this year should review closely their social media content, including posts placed on such content by other persons, to determine if this contains any items that a consular officer could choose to interpret as reflecting such a threat. Such items may include the following:
- Any comments that are critical of, or disrespectful of, the Trump presidential administration, of the President himself, or of any person closely associated with the administration.
- Any comments that express a negative view of any aspect of the United States, including its history, culture, politics, and social traditions.
- Any comments that are supportive of, or sympathetic to, any nations or organizations that have traditionally been antagonistic to the United States. These include Iran, Cuba, Venezuela, and the state of Palestine, as well as any organizations that have been classified as terrorist organizations by DOS. A list of such organizations is available here: https://www.state.gov/foreign-terrorist-organizations.
H-1B and H-4 visa applicants should also take into account DOS Secretary of State Rubio’s comment earlier this year that an absence of social media may also be seen as a sign of “evasiveness” that could result in a visa application denial. A lack of any online presence on the part of a visa applicant may thus lead to the denial of a visa application.
Successful H-1B and H-4 visa applicants should bear in mind that United States Customs and Border Protection officers may, upon entry into the United States, also request a review their social media activity by asking for access to their phones, laptops, and other devices.
