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US To Seek Social Media Details From All Visa Applicants (bloomberg.com)
According to Bloomberg, the State Department wants to require all U.S. visa applicants to submit their social media usernames, previous email addresses and phone numbers. From the report: In documents to be published in Friday's Federal Register, the department said it wants the public to comment on the proposed new requirements, which will affect nearly 15 million foreigners who apply for visas to enter the U.S. each year. The new rules would apply to virtually all applicants for immigrant and non-immigrant visas. The department estimates it would affect 710,000 immigrant visa applicants and 14 million non-immigrant visa applicants, including those who want to come to the U.S. for business or education, according to the documents. If the requirements are approved by the Office of Management and Budget, applications for all visa types would list a number of social media platforms and require the applicant to provide any account names they may have had on them over the previous five years. It would also give the applicant the option to volunteer information about social media accounts on platforms not listed in the application. In addition to their social media histories, visa applicants will be asked for five years of previously used telephone numbers, email addresses, international travel and deportation status, as well as whether any family members have been involved in terrorist activities. Only applicants for certain diplomatic and official visa types may be exempted from the requirements, the documents said.
Guess I won't be travelling to the US anymore.
That's 41,000 per day, every day. No one is even going to follow up to see if the first alias listed even exists, let alone have time to verify its authenticity. This isn't even security theatre, it's security elevator music.
Perhaps because some of them come here as tourists and spend money.
...I always have, and I always will.
But I don't have to like their government, and most of the Americans I know, don't like them very much either, but it's theirs - and right now, all they got, they got to deal with it.
Sadly, because of the draconian laws and orwellian rules bestowed on travelers and tourists to the U.S. I won't be spending my tourist money there either, and that's sad - because I spend a lot. Just the last vacation, I spent roughly 4000$ in just one month, Four thousand dollars may not sound like a lot, but it's still money to some, the year before that I spent nearly 6000$ there.
I still WANT to go, because I love to meet my American friends in person, and they have roots in our countries too (as you may know, most of America consists of immigrants), and a lot of them stem from Scandinavia. But I'm a stickler for freedom - and I believe strongly in my rights, and no way - no how - will anyone force me to give up my entire history, no matter what excuse they hide under.
What this world is coming to - is for you and me to decide.
You don't need a Visa for vacation, you need a passport from your country of residence. Visa's are required for school or working in the US.
Correct, as long as your country of citizenship (not residence) is in the visa-waiver program. Otherwise you need a visa to visit the USA.
If it weren't for deadlines, nothing would be late.
For countries that participate in the visa-waiver programme, such as the UK, just an I-94 is required to be filled in before landing.
At least, that was the case the last time I travelled there. If this new nonsense gets enacted, then that will have been the last time...
Of course, this will serve no useful purpose - anyone trying to get in with malicious intent will have prepared an innocuous set of social media content, but anyone sensible who eschews FB and their ilk will get pulled out of line for some special questioning...
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Being able to travel all over the world w/o substantial scrutiny or barriers is a relatively modern event, and was perhaps simply a temporary anomaly resulting from a brief period where long distance travel was easier than getting detailed information about travelers across borders.
In any case, this isn't a USA specific issue.
As an American with conservative political beliefs, I would not feel safe traveling to the UK or Europe. The UK just imprisoned a US Traveler for 3 days just because they didn't like his/her political beliefs. Europe is worse, who knows what laws I might break by speaking my mind?
No country is perfect, and now that countries are engaged in the modern fad of encouraging only politically correct speech - all of them are taking advantage of the influx of information about travelers.
What's the value of a worthless request like this? If someone simply says they have no such account, how is the government going to refute him/her?
Well, suppose you say you have no such account. Then you show up at the border and they decide to search your phone. Then you're screwed.
If I can be modded down for being a troll, can I be modded up for being an orc, or a balrog?
If someone simply says they have no such account, how is the government going to refute him/her?
Given the number of border crossings, it is unlikely anyone is going to look at the data when you enter. It may be cross-referenced to existing databases of suspected terrorist identities online, maybe.
However, this will become of interest if you are involved in any trouble here, since a failure to report information will make your entry a clear violation of 8 USC 1325 and thus increase the likelyhood you will be prosecuted for criminal offenses related to illegal entry.
This is fucking stupid. For any number of reasons, but the main one is that there are countries which will reciprocally put the same requirement on US citizens visiting them. And then if I go to one of those countries, I'll have to admit that I have a Google Plus account. Embarrassing.