U.S. Embassy in Dhaka Reviews Visa Applicants’ Social Media Accounts as Part of Online Screening

(DHAKA, BANGLADESH) — The U.S. Embassy in Dhaka told certain non-immigrant visa applicants on June 5, 2026 to make their social media accounts public, widening a U.S. vetting policy that now reaches a broad range of travelers seeking entry to the United States.

The embassy said applicants in listed categories must change the privacy settings on all accounts to “public” or “open,” a step officials said would support an expanded online presence review in visa screening. The reminder came on June 5, 2026, but the broader regulations took effect on March 30, 2026.

In its notice, the embassy said: “All individuals applying for an A-3, C-3 (if a domestic worker), G-5, H-3, H-4 dependent of H-3, K-1, K-2, K-3, Q, R-1, R-2, S, T, or U nonimmigrant visa are instructed to adjust the privacy setting on all social media accounts to ‘public’ or ‘open’ to facilitate vetting necessary to establish their identity and admissibility to the United States under U.S. law.”

The directive places Bangladesh within a wider U.S. security push that links visa adjudication to deeper digital screening. It also extends a process that had already been applied to several heavily used visa classes.

On March 25, 2026, the Department of State said: “The Department uses all available information in visa screening and vetting to identify visa applicants who are inadmissible to the United States, including those who pose a threat to U.S. national security or public safety. Every visa adjudication is a national security decision. A U.S. visa is a privilege, not a right.”

USCIS updates issued in early 2026 tied the broader screening effort to “strengthened screening and vetting,” including increased “social media and financial vetting,” under Executive Order 14161, signed on January 20, 2025. The order calls for uniform vetting standards across immigration-related benefits.

The newest Dhaka notice covers A-3, C-3 for domestic workers, G-5, H-3, H-4 dependents of H-3, K-1, K-2, K-3, Q, R-1, R-2, and S, T and U non-immigrant visa applicants. Existing categories already subject to the disclosure rules after rollouts in mid-2025 include H-1B, H-4, F, M and J applicants.

Applicants must provide all social media handles or usernames used in the past five years on DS-160 or DS-260 forms. The policy also reaches accounts on major platforms, including Facebook, Instagram, X and LinkedIn, which consular officers must be able to review.

That marks a sharper standard than simple disclosure. The policy now requires public visibility for affected applicants’ accounts rather than leaving the information in a form field while profiles remain shielded by privacy settings.

U.S. officials have framed social media as part of identity checks and admissibility screening, using posts, connections and profile data to look for national security threats, public safety risks or signs of fraudulent travel intent. In practice, the embassy’s order means consular staff can inspect an applicant’s visible digital footprint directly during screening.

The consequences for noncompliance are severe. Consular officers have been directed to treat a failure to provide accounts or open them for review as potential material misrepresentation, a finding that can lead to inadmissibility.

That raises privacy costs for applicants during the life of a pending case. Posts, personal associations and biographical details made visible online can be weighed against information supplied in visa forms, and any inconsistency can affect the outcome.

The Bangladesh notice arrives alongside other restrictions affecting Bangladeshi nationals. Those include a $15,000 visa bond requirement for B1/B2 applicants that took effect on Jan 21, 2026, as well as a pause on certain immigrant visa issuances for countries with high rates of public assistance reliance.

Dhaka has also seen a split in processing times across visa categories. The embassy introduced “two-day processing” for immigrant visas on June 1, 2026, while non-immigrant applicants facing social media review may encounter longer waits tied to added background checks.

That contrast is likely to matter most for applicants in categories newly swept into the rule, including domestic workers, religious workers, fiancés and some humanitarian visa applicants. Many of those classifications involve personal histories and cross-border relationships that already draw close scrutiny in visa interviews.

H-1B, H-4, F, M and J applicants had already been living under earlier versions of the social media disclosure regime, but the embassy’s latest order shows how far the requirement has spread. Nearly all non-immigrant classifications now face some level of mandatory public visibility as part of online vetting.

The use of digital screening in immigration cases is not new, but the Dhaka directive pushes the standard further by linking disclosure to public access. A listed account that remains private no longer appears enough for the categories named in the embassy’s order.

Applicants filling out DS-160 for non-immigrant visas or DS-260 for immigrant visas must account for usernames used across the previous five years, a span broad enough to cover dormant accounts and older online identities. The rule gives consular officers a wider record to compare against travel history, personal data and prior statements.

The embassy has not cast the move as a local initiative. Its wording tracks a federal line from the Department of State and DHS that treats vetting as a unified national security function, with embassies and consulates applying the same standards abroad.

In Bangladesh, where U.S. study, work and family-based travel routes remain in high demand, the directive is likely to shape how applicants prepare before scheduling or attending interviews. Public-facing profiles, once a personal choice, now sit inside the formal screening process for the listed visa classes.

People seeking to verify the rule or watch for updates can check the U.S. Embassy in Bangladesh – Official Newsroom, the U.S. Department of State – Travel.State.Gov News page and USCIS Official Alerts and Policy Updates, where the U.S. government posts notices tied to visa screening, consular practice and immigration vetting.