US suggests student visa suspension to be brief

WASHINGTON: The US State Department indicated Thursday that a global suspension on visa processing for international students would be brief, as it ramps up scrutiny of applicants´ social media activity.

State Department spokeswoman Tammy Bruce encouraged prospective students to seek visa appointments and said: “I would not be recommending that if this was going to be weeks or months.”

“I can tell you that it´s something that would happen perhaps sooner than later,” she told reporters.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Tuesday ordered embassies and consulates to pause scheduling appointments for student visas pending new guidelines on checking applicants´ social media postings.

Bruce said that prospective students should start checking online for when appointments become available.

“Right now there might be some delay, and what I´m told to encourage people to do is to regularly check to see when those spaces open,” she said.