US to check LinkedIn profiles of work visa applicants
4 December 15:25
On December 2, the U.S. State Department sent a memo to consular officers demanding that they check resumes and profiles on LinkedIn, a business networking social network, of H-1B visa applicants and refuse to grant them visas to those who have been involved in censoring freedom of speech. This was reported on Thursday, December 4, by Reuters, which has reviewed the document, "Komersant Ukrainian" reports.
The innovation applies to all work visas, but the State Department has placed a special emphasis on H-1B visas, as this type of visa is in demand in the technology sector. From now on, American diplomatic missions will find out whether a visa applicant has worked in such areas as spreading disinformation, content moderation, fact-checking, or Internet security. The pages will be checked not only for the applicant, but also for his or her family members who also want to move to the United States.
“If you find evidence that the applicant has been responsible for, or has been involved in, censoring or attempting to censor protected forms of expression in the United States, you should seek to have the applicant declared ineligible for a visa,” the memo says.
In September, the US raised the H-1B visa fee to $100 thousand
The H-1B visa is intended for highly skilled professionals and can be applied for by narrowly specialized workers who have received a job offer from a US company. Previously, companies spent about $1.5 thousand to apply for the required foreign specialists, and in September the fee was raised to $100 thousand.
“The company has to decide whether the person is valuable enough to pay the government $100,000 a year, or whether they should go home and hire an American to take their place,” commented US Secretary of Commerce Howard Luthnick.
As noted by Reuters, the decree signed by US President Donald Trump could severely damage relations between Washington and New Delhi, as 71% of approved applications under the H-1B program in 2024 were for Indian citizens.
Earlier, the US accused Europe of censorship
After Trump returned to the White House in January 2025, the US authorities repeatedly accused European countries of censorship and violation of freedom of speech. In February, Vice President James David (J.D.) Vance made such criticism at the Munich Security Conference, and in July, the State Department compared the EU’s Digital Services Act to Orwellian censorship. Among other things, it regulates the work of social networks, obliging them to take measures against, for example, disinformation.
Moreover, in September, the State Department sent notices to European countries about the termination of memorandums of understanding signed under Joe Biden, which allowed them to identify and expose disinformation spread by Russia, China, and Iran.
