3 new US visa categories to face mandatory social media checks from October 1

The United States Department of State has announced an expansion of its online presence review for visa applicants, with three additional nonimmigrant visa categories to be covered from October 1, 2026.
Under the new measure, applicants for I, TN and TD visas will be required to set the privacy settings on all their social media profiles to “public” or “open” to facilitate the vetting process.
The Department of State announced the change in an update dated September 18, 2026.
The affected categories include I visas for foreign media representatives, TN visas for certain professionals from Canada and Mexico under the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA), and TD visas for the...