THE US EMBASSY in Dublin is tightening its visa requirements, saying that future applicants looking to visit the country will be required to divulge “all social media usernames or handles of every platform they have used from the last five years” on their visa application form.

The embassy also said that it wants people to set their social media profiles to public, reiterating a move announced last week by the US State Department.

Reacting to the announcement, Taoiseach Micheál Martin said the measures are “excessive”.

“I don’t approve of them, and I don’t agree with them,” he told reporters in Dublin this afternoon.

“There is an issue around freedom of speech, but it’s more the atmosphere that’s created by these measures, the fear and the anxiety that young people will now experience travelling.”

National students body Aontas na Mac Léinn in Éirinn (AMLÉ), formerly known as the Union of Students in Ireland (USI), expressed concern about the heightened student visa vetting procedures, saying that the “invasive scrutiny” would create a “climate of fear” among students.

Who is affected?

This will apply to all applicants for F, M, and J nonimmigrant visas.

The J nonimmigrant visa is the best known of these. It covers work in the US for a limited period, while its J1 iteration allows students and college graduates to enter the US during the summer for work and travel in the US.

An F nonimmigrant visa allows foreign nationals to enter the US temporarily to pursue academic studies at certain institutions. The M nonimmigrant visa is similar, covering education in non-academic, or vocational, fields such as technical or culinary pursuits.

The new measures do not affect Electronic System for Travel Authorization (ESTA) visas.

The new requirements are more far-ranging than previously, with the crackdown on social media accounts over the past five years likely to heighten concern among Irish political parties and activist groups.

Social media handles or usernames are not necessarily the person’s real name, and may instead be used as an alias for their online profile.

US Embassy’s new guidance

In the statement, the US Embassy said that a visa “is a privilege, not a right” for travellers and that every visa decision was a “national security decision”.

The embassy said it will resume scheduling F, M, and J nonimmigrant visa applications soon.

“The United States must be vigilant during the visa issuance process to ensure that those applying for admission into the United States do not intend to harm Americans and our national interests, and that all applicants credibly establish their eligibility for the visa sought, including that they intend to engage in activities consistent with the terms for their admission,” the embassy said in its statement today.

Omitting social media information could lead to “visa denial and ineligibility” for future visas, the embassy added.

“The US Department of State is committed to protecting our nation and our citizens by upholding the highest standards of national security and public safety through our visa process,” the embassy said.

“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 US national security.

“Under new guidance, we will conduct a comprehensive and thorough vetting, including online presence, of all student and exchange visitor applicants in the F, M, and J nonimmigrant classifications.

“To facilitate this vetting, all applicants for F, M, and J nonimmigrant visas will be instructed to adjust the privacy settings on all of their social media profiles to ‘public’.

Students told to ‘proceed with caution’

The J1 visa has long been popular with students, with 3,392 students entering the US via the programme pre-pandemic in 2019.

Reacting to the US embassy statement, students’ union body AMLÉ said that students should “proceed with caution” when visa appointments resume soon.

“Students applying for a J1 visa or any US student visa this summer are advised to remain informed, stay safe, and carefully review what they are sharing publicly online,” a spokesperson for AMLÉ said.

The union’s statement added that it believes the new measures represent a “disproportionate intrusion” into students’ personal lives and raises serious concerns about freedom of expression and online surveillance.

“Students should not be subjected to invasive scrutiny simply for seeking educational and cultural opportunities abroad,” said Bryan O’Mahony, deputy president of AMLÉ.

These changes create a climate of fear and self-censorship, and risk unfairly penalising students from marginalised or politically active communities.

There had been confusion over the status of J1 applications as Donald Trump’s administration carried out its new agenda.

Ireland’s Department of Foreign Affairs said last month that while it was aware of reports that the US has instructed its diplomatic missions to pause appointments for interviews in certain visa categories, including J1 student visas, it understood that existing appointments in Ireland hadn’t been cancelled.

Last month, Taoiseach Micheál Martin criticised the moves by the US and said there should not be “any overzealous examinations of people’s records” by officials.

In an executive order on his first day as president, Donald Trump called for increased vetting of persons entering the United States to ensure they “do not bear hostile attitudes toward its citizens, culture, government, institutions, or founding principles”.

With reporting from Jane Matthews