The US is once again thinking about tightening its visa policy

The United States Administration plans to change the forms that foreign citizens fill out when applying for a visa. Among other things, the questionnaires will include lines for applicants’ email addresses.

Late last week, the US State Department submitted an official application to the Federal Registration Service with a request to approve the new document format as permanent.

The new version of the questionnaire was first presented to the public in May of this year. It contained items for all passports used by the foreigner, social networks for the last five years, telephone numbers, email addresses and, in addition, detailed biographical information for the last fifteen years, including places of work, states to which travel was made, and also addresses of actual residence.

The applicant has the right not to provide all this data, but refusal to answer significantly reduces the foreigner’s chances of obtaining a visa.

The updated version of the questionnaire was developed and adopted as part of the overall strategy to tighten immigration policy in the United States. The State Department does not say which countries’ citizens will have to provide this information. At the same time, the department said that only 65 thousand applications submitted annually raise “serious suspicions.” For the rest, the process will remain relatively simple.

Even during his election campaign last year, Donald Trump actively advocated for a review of the conditions of stay for foreigners holding immigration and non-immigrant visas. In addition, almost immediately after taking office, the American president signed a decree banning citizens of six Muslim countries in the Middle East from entering the United States.

In addition, last week Donald Trump introduced another initiative, according to which the number of legal migrants over the next decade should be reduced by at least fifty percent.

After registering the new form of the questionnaire, the public can voice their complaints within sixty days, which the Federal Registration Service will be obliged to consider.

Let us recall that Trump also recently proposed abolishing green cards in order to eliminate the effect of “chain migration”, according to which all immediate relatives of a foreigner who has received a visa are given the right to move to the United States.