US suspends all student visa processing as Trump ramps up social media vetting

The move comes during the busy season for international students looking to come to the US, who have received acceptances and must obtain visas before the new school year begins.

People enter and exit the Harry Elkins Widener Memorial Library on the Harvard University campus in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Picture: AFP.

The Trump administration isn’t scheduling any new student-visa interviews while it prepares new measures to vet applicants’ social-media accounts, according to a State Department cable dated Tuesday.

The move comes during the busy season for international students looking to come to the US, who have generally received acceptances from American universities in the spring and must obtain visas before the new school year begins in the autumn.

The interview cancellations could mean that consulates wouldn’t have time to schedule many students before then, and so students would need to delay their start dates or consider alternatives to studying in the US.

The cable, signed by Secretary of State Marco Rubio, orders embassies and consulates to stop scheduling new student-visa interviews while officials prepare for the expected “expansion of required social media screening and vetting.” More guidance will be provided in a forthcoming State Department notice, the cable notes, which goes on to acknowledge that the new requirements could be onerous for American missions abroad.

“In light of the potentially significant implications for consular section operations, processes, and resource allocations, consular sections will need to take into consideration the workload and resource requirements of each case prior to scheduling them going forward,” the cable reads.

The administration’s attacks on foreign students have been increasing. Last week, the administration yanked Harvard University’s ability to enrol foreign students, which will pose financial challenges to the institution. International students make up about a quarter of Harvard’s student body and are much likelier than Americans to pay full tuition without financial aid. Colleges have argued their presence helps subsidise students who can’t afford to pay full-freight.

“This will have implications for enrolment in the fall for US universities and maybe for years to come,” said Fanta Aw, the executive director of NAFSA: Association of International Educators, an international education association, in reference to the pause on the new visa interviews.

Politico earlier reported on the cable.

President Trump has promised more “extreme vetting” of foreigners coming to the US and has in particular focused on international students who have participated in anti-Israel protests on American college campuses. The policy shift could mean that an applicant’s public views about the US — and possibly of Trump — would more heavily factor into a final decision.

The notice indicates that, when interviews resume, there could be a significant slowdown in the student-visa process. Officials would comb through an applicant’s social-media presence for statements about the US, the current administration and its policies.

About 1.1 million international students are enrolled in US colleges and universities and pay more than $40 billion annually.

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