24-06-2025
Simon Harris: Tánaiste to contact US authorities over student visa concerns
Tánaiste (Irish deputy prime ministers) Simon Harris has raised concerns over the US State Departments decision to expand their vetting week the US State Department announced it would resume scheduling appointments for international student visas after halting the process in late applicants hoping to travel to the US will now be advised to make their social media accounts public so they can be vetted by US said he plans to take up the issue with the new US Ambassador to Ireland who is due to formally take up his post next month.
Mr Harris said he has asked his officials to engage directly with the US embassy in Dublin in a bid to provide as much clarity as possible about these new arrangements. "I also asked my officials to engage with third-level institutions and organisations that provide services for students who wish to travel with the United States", he added.
'Deep and enduring' relationship
While Mr Harris acknowledged that US immigration policy is "a matter for the US authorities", he said the decision has caused "deep concern, confusion and apprehension" for young Irish people wishing to travel to the a statement he said, "Our relationship with the United States is deep and enduring"."Importantly it also sees thousands of people travel in both directions every year. The intergenerational, people-to-people relationship between the US and Ireland begins with the opportunities that both countries afford to young people.""It is important that we work to protect this."
What has the US government said?
The Trump administration decided to halt the scheduling of student visa appointments in late May as it prepared to step up measures to restrict applicants deemed hostile to the part of last week's announcement they said scheduling would now resume, and that they would now be asking all applicants to make their social media accounts public for enhanced a statement a spokesperson for the US State Department said, those who keep their social media accounts private may be deemed as trying to hide their said officials have been instructed to expand the social media vetting of applicants and search for "any indications of hostility toward the citizens, culture, government, institutions, or founding principles of the United States"."It is an expectation from American citizens that their government will make every effort to make our country safer, and that is exactly what the Trump Administration is doing every single day," a senior State Department official said.
Who will be affected?
The new guidelines will impact all applicants who apply for F visas, which are primarily used by for the M visas, used for vocational students and those applying for J visas, used by exchange students, will also be impacted, a State Department spokesperson said.
