The Trump administration is seeking to change the visa application rules for both non-immigrants and immigrants by requesting them to submit details of their previous phone numbers, email addresses, social media histories and international travel historyfor the past five years.
If the proposed new rule is approved by the Office of Management and Budget (OMB), the Department of State (DOS) will request from all visa applicants to submit the above details in addition to the basic documents.
The DOS estimated that the new visa rule would affect14 million non-immigrant and 710,000 immigrant visa applications.
Before implementing the rule, the DOS has published in the Federal Register a notice of request for public comment and the window will be open for 60 days which expires on May 30, 2018, after which the rule could be implemented.
Sukanya Raman, Immigration Executive
Keywords: Social media information, five years history, DOS, Trump administration
