US Department of State intends to require social networking pages, e-mail and telephone numbers for all foreigners applying for a US visa

The State Department wants to raise this issue for public discussion and said that this decision will affect about 15 million foreigners who filed or file visa applications in 2018.

Previously, social networking, postal and telephone numbers were only requested by those applicants who had been subjected to additional checks during the issuance of visas. This concerned, in particular, people who left the territories controlled by terrorist organizations. The additional checks for the year were assigned to about 65 thousand applicants.

The new rules, if implemented, will apply to both immigration and non-immigrant visas.

Recall that in the summer of 2017 in the United States strengthened the rules for issuing visas . Then they were given an opportunity to check the data of social networks from the applicants over the past 5 years. The State Department has explained that a rigorous survey will concern those who will cause suspicion or pose a threat to national security.

hromadske.ua  In Ukrainian/український