The Donald Trump administration has rolled out a new questionnaire for U.S. visa applicants worldwide that asks for social media handles for the last five years and biographical information going back 15 years.
The new questions, part of an effort to tighten vetting of would-be visitors to the United States, was approved on May 23 by the US Office of Management and Budget. According to a Reuters report, critics argue that the new questions will be overly burdensome, lead to long delays in processing and discourage persons from travelling to the United States.
Under the new procedures, consular officials can request all prior passport numbers, five years’ worth of social media handles, email addresses and phone numbers as well as 15 years of biographical information including addresses, employment and travel history.
A State Department official said representatives will request the additional information when they determine it is required to confirm identity or conduct more rigorous national security vetting. The State Department said the tighter vetting would apply to visa applicants who have been determined to warrant additional scrutiny in connection with terrorism or what it described as other national security-related visa ineligibilities.
While the new questions are voluntary, the form says failure to provide the information may delay or prevent the processing of an individual visa application.
President Trump has vowed to increase national security and border protections. He has tried to implement a temporary travel ban on people from six Muslim-majority nations that a U.S. appeals court refused to reinstate, calling it discriminatory and setting the stage for a showdown in the Supreme Court.
Meanwhile, Reuters is reporting that immigration lawyers and advocates in the US have raised concerns about the new visa requirements. They stated that the request for 15 years of detailed biographical information, as well as the expectation that applicants provide all their social media handles, will likely catch applicants who make innocent mistakes or do not remember all the information requested.
President of the Iranian American Bar Association, Babak Yousefzadeh, says the new questions grant arbitrary power to consular officials to determine who gets a visa with no effective check on their decisions. He said the need for tightening the application process further is unclear.
Oh lawddd.
Interesting. All resume built een to dis yah application. You gwine disclose every rass ting bout you life and history and still no guarantee you gwine get through widdi visa. Den all DAT personal and confidential information remain in dem system fi eternity.
All dem countries, JA included DAT wasted so many precious years and politicians who sell out di country fi guaranteed wealth, may the universe give dem ten fold in tribulations fi di place weh dem bring dem country to.
This is all just to get ppl use to di newness of the world they plan to bring een.. the machine world di chip world…. they want to force us into accepting what they have been planning long b4…. its all clear more power and more control…. when they are done you will accept without even knowing because u feel it’s no other way out but it’s always a way out. That’s why honestly I didn’t want trump or Hilary to win but we would have had a little better chance with her….. I feel like they put him there purposely to bring een the craziness and someone had to do it and he was the guy.
Facebook is the government
So all who a writer F Trump and talk up shit mi say it already and mi say it again mi u rass business