The U.S. Department of State recently announced a new expansion of its review program that, starting on October 1, 2026, will require social media scrutiny for applicants in three additional categories of non-immigrant visas:
Those categories are:
- The I visa (representatives of foreign media and journalists).
- The TN visa (professionals from Mexico and Canada under the USMCA).
- The TD visa (for spouses and dependent children of TN visa holders).
The official statement reiterates that “a U.S. visa remains a privilege granted at the discretion of the government, not a right.”
What does the new regulation require exactly?
Applicants for I, TN, and TD visas must set all their social media profiles to "public" or "open" prior to the consular interview, so that officials can access and review their online activity during the evaluation.
The State Department justifies the measure in terms of national security. "Scrutiny helps identify applicants who may be inadmissible to the United States, including those who pose a threat to national or public security," the document warns.
The American Immigration Lawyers Association (AILA) confirmed the measure effective from October 1, 2026.
A program that has continued to grow
The program has its roots in June 2019, when the State Department began requiring nearly all visa applicants to declare their social media identifiers from the past five years on the DS-160 form.
Under Trump's second term, the pace of expansion accelerated
- December 2025: the scrutiny was extended to H-1B and H-4 visas.
- June 2025: se aplicó a F, M, and J student visas, exigiendo además que las cuentas estuvieran accesibles para los funcionarios consulares.
- March 2026: more than a dozen additional categories were added: A-3, C-3, G-5, H-3, K-1, K-2, K-3, Q, R-1, R-2, S, T, and U.
- August 2026: un memorando interno, anticipated the extension of the scrutiny a representantes de medios extranjeros y profesionales bajo el T-MEC, respaldado públicamente por la secretaria de prensa de la Casa Blanca, Karoline Leavitt.
- September 18, 2026: the official statement formalized that instruction, effective from October 1.
The case of the journalists: criticism and a judicial blockade
The inclusion of the I visa has sparked an intense reaction among press freedom organizations.
The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) warned that the changes "create a framework for censorship and that scrutiny of social networks may filter out journalists whose opinions contradict those of the government."
They also consider that the policy "abandon a decades-long approach that had allowed foreign journalists to report from the U.S. without fear of their immigration status being used against them."
At the same time, the administration had imposed fixed limits on the duration of I visas: up to 240 days for most correspondents and 90 days for Chinese nationals.
A federal judge temporarily blocked those restrictions in mid-September, although the scrutiny of social media was not included in that block.
Wider context: generalized migration tightening
The expansion of vetting occurs in an environment of sustained immigration tightening.
In April 2026, the Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) activated new security controls that impacted more than 12 million pending cases.
In August, the State Department temporarily suspended immigrant visa appointments worldwide to train officials on the new "public charge" criteria.
Los cambios en los requisitos de visas y los procesos migratorios en EE.UU. evolucionan constantemente. Sigue toda la actualidad en nuestra sección de para estar siempre informado.
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