Rabat – The US consulate in Casablanca canceled visas for some Moroccan applicants during the third week of July.
As indicated by several citizens on social networks, visa applicants for the United States were contacted by the consulate to resubmit their visa applications. The canceled visas had already been validated.
Some media outlets linked the cancellations to the recent reform of US visa applications. Visa applicants are required, since the June 2019 reform, to provide information on their social media accounts.
The US State Department indicated that it had updated its immigrant and non-immigrant visa forms to request additional information from almost all US applicants.
The new visa forms list a number of social media platforms (Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube), and require the applicant to provide the names of the accounts they may have had in the last five years.
The change proposed in March 2018 is expected to affect approximately 15 million foreigners who apply for a US visa each year. Some media outlets considered the reform an expansion of the Trump administration’s improved screening of immigrants and potential visitors.
However, the spokesman of the United States Embassy in Morocco, Joshua Waggener, said the visas were canceled due to additional procedures, initiated after their issuance.
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“We reiterate that no new regulations have been imposed on Moroccan citizens applying for visas for the United States, and the United States continues to welcome Moroccan nationals for tourist visits, studies, and business,” he said.
He further stated that cancellations sometimes take place in case of doubt about the authenticity of certain documents or when the reason behind the visit is not clear.
