US Embassy in Trinidad says visa applicants should make social media accounts public

The U.S. Embassy in Port of Spain, Trinidad, announced on December 10 that individuals applying for H-1B and H-4 non-immigrant visas must adjust their social media accounts to public settings to facilitate screening. “Effective immediately, all individuals applying for an H-1B or H-4 non-immigrant visa are requested to adjust the privacy settings on all of their social media accounts to ‘public’ to facilitate vetting necessary to establish their identity and admissibility to the United States under U.S. law,” the embassy said in a post on X. The message was accompanied by a graphic underscoring the national security basis for the requirement, stating: “Every U.S. visa adjudication is a national security decision. The United States requires visa applicants to provide social media identifiers on visa application forms. We use all available information in our visa screening and vetting.”

#VisaUpdate Effective immediately, all individuals applying for an H1-B or H4 nonimmigrant visa are requested to adjust the privacy settings on all of their social media accounts to ‘public’ to facilitate vetting necessary to establish their identity and admissibility to the… pic.twitter.com/EMy1603Ufm

— U.S. Embassy Port of Spain (@USinTT) December 11, 2025

The requirement builds on rules introduced in 2019, when the U.S. government began requiring most visa applicants to disclose their social media identifiers. It also follows a December 3 State Department announcement that, effective December 15, online presence screening and vetting requirements will be expanded to include H-1B visa applicants and their dependents.