Social Media Screening in the EB-5 Immigration Process
EB-5 INVESTORS AND THEIR ATTORNEYS FACE A NEW LAYER OF SCRUTINY WHERE ONLINE ACTIVITY CAN INFLUENCE ELIGIBILITY, RAISING COMPLEX ETHICAL AND STRATEGIC CONSIDERATIONS.
By Natalia Polukhtin
R ecently, the U. S. immigration landscape has undergone a profound transformation in its approach to applicant vetting. The introduction of mandatory disclosure of social media identifiers on visa and immigration benefit applications marked a decisive policy shift, extending the scope of government scrutiny beyond traditional documentary evidence to the digital footprints of applicants.
Social media content, when interpreted without cultural, linguistic, or contextual understanding, can now pose significant risks to an applicant’ s eligibility for immigration benefits.
For EB-5 investors, who already navigate the challenges of source-of-funds documentation and heightened fraud scrutiny, the addition of digital footprint analysis can be determinative in ways that are not transparent or predictable. Thus, attorneys’ readiness to address the issues produced by social media scrutiny requires legal skills and the ability to advise the client on social media usage ethically.
The practical implications for certain visa categories, particularly those involving complex financial and biographical profiles such as EB-5, are nuanced
WHEN AND WHAT SHOULD BE DISCLOSED? In 2019, following the publication in the Federal Register, as a part of the implementation of“ uniform screening and vetting standards for visa applications,” the social media identifier question was formally introduced into the nonimmigrant visa application form DS-160 and the immigrant visa application form DS-260. In the current version of this visa form, the applicants are required to answer the following question:
“ Do you have a social media presence? If yes, provide the identifiers( user names, handles, or screen names) you have used on the following platforms during the last five years.”
Upon providing an affirmative answer, applicants must choose from a drop-down list of specific social media platforms( e. g., Facebook, Twitter / X, Instagram, LinkedIn, YouTube, Reddit, Weibo, etc.) or select“ Other” to manually add additional platforms.
Additionally, the Help section on the visa application provides this guidance:
EB5 INVESTORS MAGAZINE EB5INVESTORS. COM
33 ←