US TIGHTENS VISA RULES FOR NIGERIANS, SCRUTINISES APPLICANTS' SOCIAL MEDIA ACCOUNTS. (PHOTO).

 US tightens visa rules for Nigerians, scrutinises applicants' social media accounts

The US has announced a new visa rule for Nigerians, requiring all applicants to disclose their social media usernames and handles from the past five years for vetting, TRT Afrika reported.

‘‘Omitting social media information could lead to visa denial and ineligibility for future visas,’’ the US Embassy in Nigeria said in a statement on X on Monday, adding that visa applicants are ‘‘required to list all social media usernames or handles of every platform they have used from the last 5 years on the DS-160 visa application form.’’

The Nigerian government has yet to react to the latest visa information from the US.

This directive comes as the US tightens its visa rules and imposes travel restrictions for countries around the world, mainly affecting African countries.

In July, Nigeria urged the Trump administration to reconsider a restriction that limited the validity of temporary-stay visas for Nigerian visitors to three months. That order also affected Cameroon and Ethiopia.

The US has enforced new travel restrictions on citizens from several African countries under President Donald Trump's broader immigration enforcement policies, while pressuring African countries to accept deportees from the US who are not their nationals.

In June, the US put in place travel bans on citizens from 12 countries, seven of them in Africa. It applied heightened restrictions on seven other nations, three of them African.

The US has also demanded that 36 countries, the majority of them in Africa, improve their vetting of travellers or face a ban on their citizens visiting the United States.

Zimbabwe, Malawi and Zambia were all on that list of 36 countries asked to improve their citizens’ travel documentation and take steps to address the status of their nationals who are in the US illegally.

“The Trump Administration is protecting our nation and our citizens by upholding the highest standards of national security and public safety through our visa process," the U.S. State Department said Thursday.

The new bond policy announced on Tuesday requires Malawians and Zambians to pay bonds of $5,000, $10,000 or 15,000 as part of their application for a tourist or business visa to the U.S.