The story so far: On June 23, the U.S. Embassy in India said in an X post, “Effective immediately, all individuals applying for an F, M, or J nonimmigrant visa are requested to adjust the privacy settings on all of their social media accounts to public to facilitate vetting necessary to establish their identity and admissibility to the United States under U.S. law.”

With that update, the process for securing certain types of U.S. visas — including for studying there — has become precarious.