Korean students seek digital undertakers amid US visa social media screening

SEOUL - The US Embassy in Seoul resumed accepting applications for student and exchange visas but requested that applicants make any private social media accounts public, prompting some South Korean students pursuing studies in the US to seek the help of “digital undertakers”.

On June 20, the US Embassy in Seoul announced that it will resume taking in applications for its F, M and J non-immigrant visas, saying it will conduct “thorough vetting” of applicants’ presence on social media.

In a notice posted on X, the embassy announced that all applicants should “adjust the privacy setting on all their social media profiles to ‘public’”.

Seeing the US Embassy’s recent announcement, 28-year-old Kim, who wished to be identified only by her last name, told The Korea Herald that she felt “stressed”.

The announcement was like another “daunting task” she was required to complete as part of her preparation to pursue a PhD at a US university.

“I’ve been preparing to further my studies by applying to a graduate school in the US for about a year and a half – writing up personal statements, taking language proficiency exams and speaking with professors at schools I was interested in,” said Ms Kim.

“I felt like I was ready this year and was going to apply. But knowing that my social media accounts and the stuff I posted in the past could be an obstacle to me studying in the States – not something like my school grades – is really stressful to me.”

While the US has mandated that visa applicants list their social media accounts on their applications since 2019, Ms Kim stated that the screenings conducted under the current administration feel “different” to her.

“I don’t know how strictly they handled the screening of social media accounts in the past,