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U.S. To Seek Social Media Details from All Visa Applicants

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Re: U.S. To Seek Social Media Details from All Visa Applicants

#81
post #74

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why do you deserve a job over a resident with equal skills?

Sounds like he is a resident.

British citizen actually, living and working in the UK. Care to answer the question?

Re: U.S. To Seek Social Media Details from All Visa Applicants

#83
post #54
post #11

What if you don't have any social media accounts? Are they just going to assume anyone who says they don't is lying or trying to hide something? Seems like a dumb policy to require details on a purely voluntary activity.

I really hope it's not perceived or implemented as mandatory "at least one" required.

Asking such questions on a voluntary basis is usually just a phase to reduce opposition once it's finally mandatory.

Re: U.S. To Seek Social Media Details from All Visa Applicants

#84

Doesn't some other countries already do this? I was asked about my LinkedIn for a work visa in Canada.

Canada is very aggressive about searching for "hate speech" at the border. This includes mandating that you turn over your phone and searching through your texts, emails and any linked accounts for keywords. This is personal experience.

Re: U.S. To Seek Social Media Details from All Visa Applicants

#85
I'm not sure I'm planning to visit the US ever again, but if I did, what would count as social media? Does HN count? Does my blog? IRC nickname? Github and Bitbucket accounts? I've never had a Facebook, Twitter, Snapchat, Instagram, Pinterest or LinkedIn account.

The only thing I guess unequivocally counts as social media is my Mastodon accounts.

Re: U.S. To Seek Social Media Details from All Visa Applicants

#86
post #31
post #4

the effort to make the US even more unappealing to immigrants marches on...

Immigration aside, I would be curious to see if this type of stance has any impact on tourism stats. I assumed once travel bans started being introduced that conference organizers would adopt stronger preferences for other countries as potential locations but I'm not sure if that's actually happened.

[deleted]

Re: U.S. To Seek Social Media Details from All Visa Applicants

#87

The social media companies are US companies. Why are they hurting their own companies. Why would I want to have a social media account if every country wants to look at what I consider my personal life. Having accounts won't be worth it. Fuck that. I already work at a large university that can't use anything hosted on US servers because of their shitty homeland security server laws. So many cloud services out of huge…

> every country

Mostly the US and the UK, it seems. For example the EU Blue Card system is generally quite reasonable: if you have high qualifications and can find a job, you get a work visa, which eventually turns into permanent residency.

US and UK immigration tends to be overcomplicated, draconian, and paranoid.

Re: U.S. To Seek Social Media Details from All Visa Applicants

#88
post #51

Pretty absurd that they're asking for all of this and: > [...] 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. I know a number of people going through, or have been through, the US visa process an…

> five years of previously used telephone numbers, I couldn't tell even if I wanted to, I go somewhere, pick up a SIM card, trash it when I leave. These days many countries sell them from machines or newsstands at the airport, this is not unusual any more. Japan and the UK, both from 2015: https://cdn.techinasia.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/Screen... http://travelpal.s3-eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/wp-content/uploa... a…

odds are if you used it for such a short time they wouldnt know either. And it'd be odd if they say "You failed to disclose 555-555-5555" (ok... but you clearly know the number)

Re: U.S. To Seek Social Media Details from All Visa Applicants

#90

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I couldn't disagree more - this focuses on giving Americans a chance to get employment before anyone else. What's wrong with that? I'm a Brit and would love the same policy here.

Well as the article says it's for "applications for all visa types" can you enlighten me how this would help with giving Brits or Americans a better chance of employment? Any corporate bringing people in under a skill-based exception is unlikely to be affected - they already game the system, that they helped create, significantly. Any potential overseas worker wanting to emigrate will just add "make a FB, and Twitter…

I agree - people lie, cheat and play the system to get what they want. Define the sorts of people you want to give visas to.

So which is it - the American government is super competent and tracks everything and everyone, or they're super incompetent and can't tell a social media account has been created for the purposes of getting a visa?

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