The Trump administration has reportedly ordered a pause on new student visa interviews as it considers a policy requiring all foreign applicants to undergo mandatory social media vetting, Politico has reported.
Citing an internal US State Department cable, Politico reported that US embassies and consular offices worldwide have been instructed to halt scheduling new visa interviews for student and exchange visitor applicants (categories F, M, and J) until further notice.
“Effective immediately, in preparation for an expansion of required social media screening and vetting, consular sections should not add any additional student or exchange visitor visa appointment capacity until further guidance is issued,” the cable reportedly states.
The move comes as part of US President Donald Trump's sweeping crackdown on universities, including funding cuts and scaling back of research programmes as well as detaining and deporting students involved in campus protests.
While previous social media screening targeted returning students, particularly those involved in protests against Israel's war in Gaza, the new policy, if implemented, would apply to all prospective applicants.
Tuesday's State Department cable refers to executive orders intended to counter terrorism and antisemitism, though it does not specify what content would trigger visa denial.
US universities, which enrol hundreds of thousands of foreign students each year — particularly from India and China — could face disruptions as the Trump administration considers stricter visa screening.
The proposed policy, which includes mandatory social media vetting for all foreign student applicants, may slow visa processing and hurt institutions that rely heavily on international enrolment.
The development comes days after the Trump administration blocked Harvard University from admitting and hosting foreign students, prompting the Ivy League school to sue.
A judge later suspended the ban, calling it "unconstitutional."
Earlier today, the administrtaion asked federal agencies to cancel contracts with Harvard worth about $100 million.
Harvard sponsors more than 7,000 people on a combination of F-1 and J-1 visas, which are issued to students and to foreigners visiting the US on exchange programs such as fellowships.
Across all the schools that make up the university, about 26% of the student body is from outside the US.
But some schools and programs, by nature of their subject matter, have significantly more international students. At the Harvard Kennedy School, which covers public policy and public administration, 49% of students are on F-1 visas. In the business school, one-third of students come from abroad. And within the law school, 94% of the students in the master’s program in comparative law are international students.
Notably, the US government can and does remove colleges from the Student Exchange and Visitor Program, making them ineligible to host foreign students on their campus.
However, it's usually for administrative reasons outlined in law, such as failing to maintain accreditation, lacking proper facilities for classes, failing to employ qualified professional personnel — even failing to “operate as a bona fide institution of learning.”
Other colleges are removed when they close.
“I've never seen it revoked for any reason besides the administrative issues listed in the statute,” said Sarah Spreitzer, vice president of government relations at the American Council on Education, an association of universities. “This is unprecedented.”
