Visa Applicants and Social Media

Visa Applicants Required to Disclose Social Media Accounts

Many immigration procedures have changed over the past few years, and it can be difficult to keep up with them. One of the more recent changes affects visa applicants with social media accounts and it can have very serious and lasting consequences. Beginning May 31, 2019, anyone applying for a visa at a U.S. consulate abroad is required to disclose all social media account names when filling out a consular visa application. This includes any social media accounts that the visa applicant has ever had.

They cannot force my to give my social media accounts, can they?

Yes. They can. U.S. Customs officers at the border often demand to inspect visitors’ cell phones, including their saved photos, social media apps, and even emails. When a refusal to comply means automatically being turned away, visitors often have no choice but to grudgingly provide their phones for inspection. The irony is that this (in)voluntary act often leads to being turned away anyway, as we explain below.

U.S. consulates abroad are now formally requiring visa applicants to disclose their social medial account information during the consular visa application process. And while the U.S. government arguably already has tools at their disposal to look up social media information for almost anyone, this new requirement makes the review process very easy and can have serious consequences for visa applicants.

Why is this such a big deal?

Visa applicants tend to post all sorts of personal details on social media and overshare information that is not always meant to be shared outside of a close circle of friends or relatives. Unfortunately, such information can often run afoul with the arcane U.S. immigration laws. Consider the following examples:

• Sally has been looking for a job in the United States.  She has a degree in IT. She decides to come over as a visitor, thinking she will have better luck job searching if she is already present in the United States, and that the usual six months of authorized visitor stay is plenty of time to attend some interviews and land her dream job. She applies for a visitor visa. However, Sally’s friends throw a going-away party for her and post photographs of the Bon Voyage cake. A consular or US Customs officer seeing that Sally’s friends consider her to be relocating to the United States will very likely question her intent to return to her home country after her U.S. visit.

• Ivan recently traveled to Amsterdam where he had a great time. Among other things, he smoked pot and posted pictures on Facebook. While smoking pot may have been perfectly legal in Amsterdam and even in Ivan’s home country, marijuana remains a controlled substance under U.S. federal laws. This Facebook post can make Ivan inadmissible, i.e. he may be denied a visa and/or denied admission at the border.

• Carlos likes to party. He regularly posts on Instagram and many of his pictures show him drinking. His friends even took a few shots of him being obviously drunk and passed out. They posted everything on Instagram, to everyone’s amusement. Alcohol consumption on its own is not a reason to deny someone a visa or admission in the United States. However, such Instagram posts could lead a U.S. consular or customs officer to believe that Carlos may have an alcohol-related medical condition that could endanger his wellbeing or the wellbeing of others. And this is a reason to deny a visa or admission to the United States.

• Mike is a U.S. citizen and he recently proposed to his Polish girlfriend Flora. They are both very excited and are planning to have their wedding in Los Angeles, CA. Preparations are under way and Flora’s friends and family are planning to attend. To help with coordination, Flora is posting multiple messages and detailed information about the upcoming wedding on Facebook. Among other things, Flora needs to apply for a U.S. tourist visa but this is the last thing on her mind. In reality, she may have a serious problem on her hands. She will find it very difficult convincing a U.S. consular officer, who has already seen the Facebook posts, that she intends to return to Poland after the wedding and her visit are over. A consular officer is much more likely to believe that Flora intends to remain in the United States and apply for a green card based on her marriage to a U.S. citizen. This is directly inconsistent with the single most important requirement for tourist visas, i.e. the necessary intent to visit on a temporary basis and then promptly leave. And even if the U.S. consulate somehow issues Flora a visa, she will then need to convince a U.S. customs officer at the border that all of these Facebook posts do not mean much and that she really is just “visiting” and is not going to apply for a green card.*

*Incidentally, we see this last scenario play out way too often. It is perhaps the most common reason to ruin carefully planned weddings between U.S. citizens and foreign nationals.

All right, I understand this is serious. What should I do?

If you are a visa applicant, you should avoid oversharing information on social media. This is a good general practice but is especially important if you ever plan to travel, work or eventually apply for permanent residence in the United States. You may consider going through your posts and deleting anything that may potentially raise questions about U.S. visa or admission eligibility. However, even if you delete posts, you cannot lie to a U.S. government agent who asks you questions related to such deleted posts. As you are well aware, social media leaves permanent traces online and the U.S. government does have tools and resources to access social media content.

Here are some additional tips:

• Never – ever – joke about committing a crime or having intentions to harm anyone in the United States;
• Do not lie to U.S. consular officials or CBP officers. Most of them are highly experienced at what they do and can often “smell” deception;
• While you have the right to express your political views, know it may not help at the consulate or airport to have posts badmouthing the U.S. government or our current president;
• Do not post things that contradict what you say on your visa application;
• Most importantly, consider hiring an immigration attorney to help you with your visa application.

Please let us know how we can best serve you as we navigate the complexity of the United States immigration system.

July 10, 2019