International students heading to the US for college now have an extra step to complete when applying for a visa.

Under rules that went into effect earlier this month, students and most others seeking US visas will be asked to disclose their social media screen names.

The new process is a change from past practice, where only individuals tagged for additional screening were required to supply such information. The “extreme vetting” rules — initially proposed by the Trump administration over a year ago — require most visa applicants to disclose all the social media platforms they have used in the past five years.

Roughly 710,000 immigrant visa applicants and 14 million nonimmigrant visa applicants are expected to be affected, according to Time Magazine.

Learn more about extreme vetting on NACAC’s webpage focused on foreign and refugee students and see how the social media question appears on the US visa application.

Admitted writer/editor Mary Stegmeir welcomes additional comments and story ideas at mstegmeir@nacacnet.org.