India, June 23 -- In an attempt to tighten the visa screening process, the United States has announced that all individuals applying for non-immigrant visas in F (student), M, or J (academic scholar) categories are required to adjust the privacy settings on their social media accounts, making it 'public' to facilitate vetting necessary to establish their identity and admissibility to the country.

In a post on X, the official handle of the U.S. Embassy in India (@USAndIndia) shared the announcement stating, "Every visa adjudication is a national security decision. Effective immediately, all individuals applying for an F, M, or J non-immigrant visa are requested to adjust the privacy settings on all of their personal social media accounts ...