H-1B applicants: Your LinkedIn profile is now evidence under Trump checks

A new State Department directive warns consular officers to reject applicants found involved in suppressing protected expression, intensifying the Trump administration's crackdown on legal migration

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The Trump administration has directed consular officers to step up scrutiny of H-1B visa applicants, with a new instruction to deny visas to anyone found to have taken part in “censorship” of free speech in the United States.

 

The guidance was issued through a State Department cable sent to US missions abroad on December 2. Reuters reported that the cable carried a clear warning to officers: “BE ON THE LOOKOUT: APPLICANTS RESPONSIBLE FOR OR COMPLICIT IN CENSORSHIP OF AMERICANS.”

 

What the cable says

 

If you uncover evidence an applicant was responsible for, or complicit in, censorship or attempted censorship of protected expression in the United States, you should pursue a finding that the applicant is ineligible,” the cable explained, referring to a specific article of the Immigration and Nationality Act.

 

H-1B visas bring in high-skilled workers and are widely used in the US tech sector, including by social media firms that the White House has criticised over questions of censorship. While the cable applies to all visa categories, it singles out H-1B workers as more likely to be employed in social media or financial services, sectors it describes as “involved in the suppression of protected expression.”

 

This move comes as President Donald Trump steps up actions to curb legal migration after a National Guard member died in an ambush near the White House last month. The administration had already introduced a $100,000 fee for H-1B applications in September.

 

Officers have been encouraged to check applicants’ LinkedIn pages, CVs and trade-press coverage. The issues flagged include situations where an applicant complied with content-moderation demands from a foreign authority or adopted global content policies that the administration views as inconsistent with free expression. 

 

Earlier scrutiny of social-media ties

 

In June, Secretary of State Marco Rubio ordered extra checks on the social-media profiles of foreigners seeking to visit Harvard University. He told consular officers that even the absence of an online presence might be enough to deny a visa.

 

A month earlier, Rubio warned that visa restrictions could be used against people who suppress speech by Americans, including on social platforms, and said the approach could also extend to foreign officials regulating US tech companies.

 

The administration has already widened vetting for student visas, with officers instructed to examine applicants’ social-media activity for posts seen as hostile towards the United States. In September, the government brought in new H-1B fees as part of its broader immigration crackdown.

 

Trump and Republican allies have repeatedly accused the administration of former President Joe Biden of encouraging suppression of free speech online, often pointing to efforts to counter misinformation about vaccines and elections.