The State Department is opening the public comment period for a proposal that seeks to inspect social media accounts and other data of visa applicants the government believes may pose a danger.
The new vetting, the State Department said, likely will only impact about 0.5 percent of visa applicants per year—roughly 65,000 people. The new vetting being proposed would apply to applicants “who have been determined to warrant additional scrutiny in connection with terrorism or other national security-related visa ineligibilities,” according to a notice in the Federal Register by the State Department.
Those deemed to warrant the heightened vetting would have to disclose all of their previous passport numbers, five years of social media handles, telephone numbers, and e-mail addresses. The plan also calls for US-bound travelers to supply 15 years of biographical data. Passwords are not required to be divulged in this proposal, though an earlier plan included requiring visa applicants to hand over their social media credentials.
The public has until May 18 to comment on the proposal that the State Department submitted to the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) for approval.
The plan stems from Trump’s call to the federal bureaucracy to bolster vetting of people coming to the Unites States. The edict was part of the president’s immigration executive orders that contained a temporary ban on people from several Muslim-majority nations. While the courts have halted the travel ban for now, Trump’s mandate for agencies to add tougher vetting procedures for US-bound travelers remains intact.
The President Barack Obama administration adopted a plan asking the millions of tourists entering the country each year under a Visa Waiver Program to reveal their “online presence.”
