US Visa Social Media Checks Now Reach TN, TD and Media Visa Applicants

The US State Department has widened its online presence review again. From today, 1 October 2026, applicants for three more visa categories are covered: the I visa for representatives of foreign media, and the TN and TD categories used by Canadian and Mexican professionals and their dependants under the USMCA.

What applicants are asked to do
Applicants in covered categories are instructed to set every social media profile they use to public, or open, so that consular officers can review it as part of the visa decision.

That is not a request to submit a list of usernames and wait. It is an instruction to change the privacy settings on the accounts themselves before the application is assessed.

Who was already covered
The review is not new. It began with student and exchange categories, the F, M and J visas, and has grown in stages since. The current list also includes H-1B specialty workers and their dependants, fiancé and spouse categories, religious workers, and several smaller categories, alongside diplomatic and official visas.

TN, TD and I are simply the latest additions. The State Department's own announcement has been updated each time the scope has changed, which is the clearest sign that it may change again.

Why this matters for planning
Each expansion has taken effect within days or weeks of being announced. Applicants who began preparing under the old rules found themselves under the new ones before their interview date.

For a TN professional, this is a practical change to a route many treated as routine. Profiles that were private for years now have to be opened, and anything on them becomes part of the file.

What this does not cover
The review applies to visa applications. Travellers who visit the United States under the Visa Waiver Program use a different authorisation and are not the subject of this announcement.

That may not stay true indefinitely. A proposal to make social media history a mandatory part of that authorisation was published for comment in December 2025. It has not been finalised, and no start date has been set.

What to do
If you are applying in a covered category, review your public footprint before you open your profiles, not after. Make sure the accounts you list match the accounts you use. Inconsistency is a common reason applications are delayed for further checks.

Allow extra time. Additional review can extend processing beyond the timeline you were planning around.

Verified against the US Department of State announcement on expanded screening and vetting for visa applicants, checked 1 October 2026.