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| social media details required for US visa applicants |
Who said visa is not needed to enter the United States? Those articles saying one does not need a visa to enter the United States is a faux news. Visa application both for immigrant and non-immigrant is still stringent and just today while I was browsing the online, I read at the AP News website that there is an added required information from the visa applicant. It stated that nearly all visa applicants for United States are required to provide their social media details which include accounts on twitter and facebook. It reported that email, social media and phone number histories had only been sought in the past from applicants who were identified for extra scrutiny which is about 65,000 applicants per year. There are about 15 million visa applicants in the US every year. Applicants for certain official and diplomatic visa types are not required to submit their social media details. This was implemented since national security is a top priority of the state department and a way to screen visa applicants.
There are millions of visa applicants in the United States every year from family petitioned, work petitioned, tourist visas among others. Some of these visas were approved after years of waiting and some months of waiting, it depends on the category they are applying for and it also depends on someone’s case. In 2017 according to travel.State.Gov.-United States, the United States issued 559,536 immigrant visas and 9,681,913 nonimmigrant visas.
