The United States government has also made major improvements on its vetting processes to applicants of H-1B visa and the dependents of H-4 by implementing social media screening of all applicants starting December 15. In the new order, those seeking H-1B, H- 4, and foreign categories of visa F, M, and J will be required to change the privacy settings of all their social media platforms to public. This will enable the US authorities to monitor their online activity in the process of visa review.
Wednesday saw the US State Department clarify that the move is an attempt to improve national security by issuing a formal order. The department stated that all visa adjudications are national security decisions, and that a US visa is highly regarded as a privilege and not a right. It added that visa officers are expected to use all the available information to decide whether a given applicant represents any possible threat to the United States.
This directive focuses on vigilance and it is said that the government should take care that any applicants do not have intentions to injure Americans. The forced social media interview, as the US authorities suggest, will enable them to better understand the online behaviors, associations, and the red flags of the applicants.
Reacting to the issues cited in the Indian Parliament, the External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar has added that the screening of the visa applicants is the prerogative of the host state. In his address to the Rajya Sabha, he pointed out that all governments are at liberty to make decisions on how they judge anyone seeking an entry. He also elaborated that the US stand is strong: any decision regarding visa is taken keeping national security in the first place.
Jaishankar also included that Washington has the utmost discretion of approving or denying a visa to any applicant based on its judgment of the national security consequences with any applicant. The new regulation is a replica of the overall US effort in tightening the immigration checks.
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