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JUST OVER A dozen people were queuing for visa applications when the US Embassy opened at 9am this morning.
It was a mixed group – a family of three, several middle-aged workers and a handful of students awaiting interviews for J1 visas.
The smaller crowd was not surprising. There has recently been a 25% drop in young people travelling from Ireland to the US on student visas, according to US authorities.
Processing of new visas for students was also suspended last month, as Donald Trump’s administration ramps up vetting.
New protocols now require international students, including Irish students travelling on a J1 visa, to adjust the privacy settings on all their social media profiles to “public”.
Yesterday, the Dublin embassy said that all future visa applicants will also be required to divulge “all social media usernames or handles of every platform they have used from the last five years” on their visa application form.
Among the students outside the embassy this morning was Éamon, who is heading to study in the US as part of an Erasmus programme. He’s currently applying for a J visa, the most common visa used by Irish students heading to the US.
“It is a small bit invasive that you have to go public with your social media accounts,” Éamon said.
“I had decided last year that I was going to study in the States. It would definitely be different if you’re going on a J1 working holiday.”
He later conceded that he “did not have a problem” with the recent changes to US visa application checks, adding: “They’re just trying to protect their country”.
This sentiment was echoed by Jack, another student in the queue waiting on an interview for a J1 application to head to Pennsylvania.
“There shouldn’t be too much of an issue, because I think a lot of people don’t really have their whole lives on social media,” he said.
“America has the right to deny anyone who comes in, but I suppose it’s a wee bit dodgy”.
Ailbhe, another J1 visa hopeful, told The Journal that the application process was “straightforward”, but added that recent restrictions were “a little worrying”.
“I suppose I’d be worried if I had private accounts, or if I was posting more,” Ailbhe said.
“It will definitely affect some people that I follow that would post more activist content”.
National students’ union Aontas na Mac Léinn in Éirinn (AMLÉ) urged caution yesterday, advising those applying for J1 or other US student visas to stay informed and to be mindful of their online presence.
The union criticised new visa measures as an overreach into students’ private lives, warning they threaten free expression and represent an increase in online surveillance.
“Students shouldn’t face invasive scrutiny just for pursuing education abroad,” said AMLÉ deputy president Bryan O’Mahony, adding that the changes foster fear and self-censorship, and may disproportionately impact marginalised or politically active students.
Trinity Students’ Union President Jenny Maguire said the new visa social media checks were a “fundamentally undemocratic move” by the US.
“I still think that the J1 visa is held in high regard here, but it’s just not an option for so many people,” Maguire said.
She said that the new stricter vetting process posed a risk of activists in Ireland censoring their content, adding: “This is an attempt to curb and suppress political opposition.”
It is an absolutely absurd situation and it cannot be normalised.
“I personally would not risk going on a J1, and I think that’s awful,” Maguire said, adding that activists, academics, minority groups and LGBTQ+ people in Ireland now face an uphill battle entering the US to work.
Boston-based immigration lawyer John Foley told RTÉ Radio 1′s Claire Byrne show this morning that students “should be worried”.
“They’re going back five years, so these students would have been young teenagers at the time. There’s no telling what they’re looking for, and there’s no telling how they’ll be treated once they get to the embassy,” Foley said.
Foley explained that J1 hopefuls now have to hand over all of their social media usernames and passwords going back five years, and said: “If you don’t list them, and they catch you, you’ll be denied, and you’ll possibly be banned from coming to the US.”
“It doesn’t solve a problem that exists,” Foley said.
“It’s Trump doing what Trump does. He creates a problem and then he solves it with some ridiculous administrative move that is not going to work.
“It’s simply going to slow things up. Gum things up, spread fear, and then he’ll come to the rescue by getting rid of it somewhere down the road,” Foley added.
It’s understood that fewer than 100 J1 visa applications were going through the system when changes to vetting procedures were first announced last week.
According to US embassy staff, the focus is now on applications from students who have applied to study in America in September for the next academic year.
As a hiring freeze came into place at embassies when Trump was elected, and there are now additional vetting procedures, it’s expected that the processing of appointments will be slower.
In the statement yesterday, the US Embassy said that a visa “is a privilege, not a right” for travellers and that every visa decision was a “national security decision”.
Taoiseach Micheál Martin said yesterday that the new social media checks are “excessive”, adding that “there is an issue around freedom of speech”.
“It’s more the atmosphere that’s created by these measures, the fear and the anxiety that young people will now experience travelling,” Martin said.
The embassy said it will resume scheduling F, M, and J non-immigrant visa applications soon.
Additional reporting by Eimer McAuley
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