The U.S. Embassy in Korea announced on the 20th that it will resume the suspended schedules for student visa interviews. The J (student), M (vocational training), and F (exchange and professor) visas are the targets, and applicants are required to have their social media (SNS) accounts set to public.
The embassy noted in a statement distributed to Yonhap News that it plans to soon resume the application schedules for F, M, and J nonimmigrant visas, asking applicants to check the availability of reservations on the visa scheduling website. F refers to exchange and professor, M refers to vocational training, and J refers to exchange visitors.
This action follows the announcement made by the U.S. Department of State on the 18th (local time) to restart visa issuance procedures for foreign students and trainees. Previously, students had been unable to make visa interview reservations for about three weeks starting from the 28th of last month, causing inconvenience.
While some visa applications have resumed, the scrutiny criteria have become stricter. The embassy explained that "under the new guidelines, comprehensive and thorough reviews will be conducted for all student and exchange visitor applicants for nonimmigrant visa categories F, M, and J, including online assessments," and that "to facilitate this review, applicants for F, M, and J nonimmigrant visas will be instructed to adjust the privacy settings of all their social media profiles to 'public.'"
According to the student community, it was reported that some interview reservation slots opened around 11 a.m. on the same day, and applications closed within minutes.
Previously, the U.S. Department of State had announced that applicants for new student visas who do not allow access to their SNS account posts may have their visa issuance denied. The guidelines distributed to embassies and consulates included provisions for evaluating the applicant's attitudes toward American culture, institutions, values, and government during the visa review process.
Some argue that while the United States, as a sovereign nation, can set its own entry inspection criteria, there are concerns that it may not be consistent with a country that values freedom of expression.