- By Shubham Bajpai
- Mon, 06 Oct 2025 09:57 PM (IST)
- Source:JND
Dreams of an Indian student were shattered after he was denied a US visa, even after getting enrolled at the prestigious Columbia University and getting a scholarship of Rs 89 lakh. His application was rejected after the social media vetting.
Kaushik Raj, a student and a freelance reporter, got admission to the Ivy League institution's MS in Data Journalism and his programme was scheduled to start on August 15, but his visa application was rejected the same month, according to a report by Hindustan Times.
He narrated how he managed to get an appointment slot, but his visa was still rejected. "The visa application took a lot of time. The US government had briefly stopped issuing student visas, and when it resumed there were no appointment slots available. I managed to get a slot after trying for 10 days,” Raj was quoted by HT as saying.
Raj claimed that his application was rejected based on social media vetting. He said that he was asked to make his social media public during the interview and eventually his application was rejected.
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"The (visa) interview took place on July 29 and they handed me a slip to make my social media public. On August 4, the application status showed that my application was refused. But, on August 11, it changed to administrative processing and it turned back to 'refused' on August 14," Raj further said.
Kaushik added that when he collected his passport, he received a rejection letter, which read, "You were not able to demonstrate that your intended activities in the United States would be consistent with the classification of the nonimmigrant visa for which you applied."
"You have not demonstrated that you have the ties that will compel you to return to your home country after your travel to the United States", the letter further added.
Reacting on the rejection letter, Raj said, "If they were not satisfied with my application, they could have refused during the interview. But they rejected me after asking me for my social media details."
Social media scrutiny was announced to be one of the processes for screening the visa applicants by the US administration earlier this year. The Trump administration had said that social media would be scrutinised to identify those who pose a threat to the US national security.