U.S. Embassy in Nigeria has mandated visa applicants in Nigeria to make their social media accounts public for necessary security vetting to determine their admissibility for an American visa.
In a statement posted on its official X page on Monday, the U.S. Mission in Nigeria said “Every visa adjudication is a national security decision.
“Effective immediately, all individuals applying for an F, M, or J nonimmigrant visa are requested to adjust the privacy settings on all of their personal social media accounts to ‘public’ to facilitate vetting necessary to establish their identity and admissibility to the United States.’’
U.S. authorities further stated that vetting social media accounts of Nigerian visa applicants is to identify those who are security threats to the U.S.
The statement noted, “We use all available information in our visa screening and vetting to identify visa applicants who are inadmissible to the United States, including those who pose a threat to U.S. national security. Since 2019, the United States has required visa applicants to provide social media identifiers on immigrant and nonimmigrant visa application forms.”
This directive followed amid President Donald Trump’s clampdown on immigration.
In June, Mr Trump signed a travel ban, blocking Afghanistan, Myanmar, Chad, the Republic of Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Haiti, Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan and Yemen from America.
Reports also suggested that Nigeria is among 36 countries under consideration for U.S. travel ban.
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