Social Media Mining: 5 Things to Delete Before Your Next Visa Interview

When you apply for a visa today the visa process is not about filling out forms. The people who decide if you get a visa they look at the things you post on media, like Facebook and Twitter. This is part of checking if you're a security risk or not. What you put on the internet can help your visa application. It can make the consular officers doubt you. The visa process is very careful. They check many things, including your social media posts to make sure everything is okay.

Here are five types of content you should review carefully before your next visa interview.

Visa official reviews social media content during a visa interview while a candidate awaits feedback.

1. Posts That Contradict Your Visa Purpose

Visas are granted for specific purposes (tourism, work, study, etc.). Any social media content that suggests different intentions can raise red flags.

• Delete: Vacation photos labeled "scouting neighborhoods" when applying for a tourist visa; posts about looking for jobs abroad when on a student visa.

• Why: Consular officers look for consistency. A post joking, "This student visa is just my ticket to a U.S. job," can lead to a denial for misrepresentation.
  

2. Evidence of Unauthorized Work Intentions

• The United States Citizenship and Immigration Services and Customs and Border Protection use Artificial Intelligence to check if people want to work in the United States without the visa. They do this by looking for signs that someone plans to work in the United States. The USCIS and Customs and Border Protection are very serious, about making sure people follow the rules. The rules say that people need to have the visa if they want to work in the United States. So the USCIS and Customs and Border Protection use Artificial Intelligence to scan for intent to work without the visa.

• The Red Flag: I am trying to promote a side job like freelance work, on LinkedIn. I ask people in Facebook groups "How can I find a cash job when I am on a tourist visa?" This is about finding a cash job while I have a tourist visa like a side hustle and people are talking about it on Facebook and LinkedIn and asking how to find a cash job, on a tourist visa.

• What to Delete: Inquiries about "under-the-table" work or professional profiles that show you are actively seeking US-based employment while only holding a visitor’s status.

3. Fake Information or Inflated Claims

• When the things you say are not true and do not match the information, in your papers this is a big problem. Your official documents should have the information and you should not say things that are not true because this can cause a lot of trouble. Making exaggerations that are not real and do not match your documents is a major risk.

• We should get rid of posts that make a deal about job titles, company size or salary. This includes posts that say you are really friends with people you do not actually know very well like distant relatives. We should also delete posts that have the wrong employment dates for jobs at a company. This will help clean up the posts about the company and your job, at the company.

• Why: This can be seen as fraud. If your Facebook says you're a "Director" but your employment letter says "Analyst," the inconsistency undermines your credibility.

4. Offensive, Violent, or Illegal Content The policies that came out in 2026 are really about security. They want to find people who do not like America or who are doing something against the law. These new policies are looking for things, like -American feelings or illegal actions. The main goal of the 2026 policies is to keep America safe.

• The Red Flag: Photos involving drug use (even if legal in your home country), extremist political commentary, or "hostile attitudes" toward US institutions.

• What to Delete: Any content that could be interpreted as endorsing violence, hate speech, or illegal acts. Consular officers are currently instructed to look for "hostility toward the United States or its core values."

5. Immigration Strategy Discussions

• Joining groups that talk about how to get around the 221(g) process is not a good idea. These groups often discuss things, like how to trick the visa officer, which's a bad plan. Talking about how to bypass the 221(g) process or how to trick the visa officer can get you into trouble. It is a mistake to join these groups that discuss how to trick the visa officer or how to get around the 221(g) process.

• The Red Flag is when you are part of groups or Telegram and WhatsApp groups where people talk about how to lie to the consulate. These groups are news because people in them give each other tips on how to misrepresent facts to the consulate. The Red Flag is basically about being in a group where people share advice, on how to trick the consulate.

• What to Delete: Exit any groups that promote "gray area" immigration tactics. Even if you don't post, your membership in these groups is visible to modern mining tools.

6. Important Reminder

Don't just deactivate—audit and clean. Deactivating an account right before an interview can look suspicious. It's better to methodically clean your profiles weeks or months in advance. Assume officers can access:

• Public posts, photos, and comments

• The posts that your friends have made public where they have tagged you or mentioned your name these are the things that other people can see when they look at your friends posts. Your friends public posts that have your name in them this is what others can view. When your friends write something. They tag you or mention your name, that post becomes visible, to other people. This happens with your friends public posts where you are tagged or mentioned in them.

• Professional networking sites (LinkedIn, GitHub)

• Old forum or blog comments under your name or username

Bonus Tip: Strengthen Instead of Just Deleting

Proactively shape your digital footprint to support your application:

Show Ties to Home Country: Post about property, family events, or community involvement in your home country.

• Align with Visa Purpose: If applying for a student visa, share articles about your university or field of study. For work, engage with content from your future employer's industry.

• We need to clean up tags on our friends posts. We have to review these tags and remove any that do not look good or say something that's not true. Clean up tags from friends posts that're not professional or that say something different from what they really mean. This is about clean up tags that're not good, for our friends.

• Privacy Check: Adjust all settings to "Friends Only" or "Private" for personal content, but remember that privacy is not absolute.

Good Luck.