While waiting to cross the road to join the queue for a visa appointment at the US Embassy in Dublin on Friday, Ella* reluctantly turned her Instagram account to public mode, making it free for all to see.
She had earlier unfollowed every vaguely Palestine-related account she could think of for fear of it being used to deny her a visa to enter the US.
Ella, who is due to start studying at a university on the US’s east coast in September, was reluctant to share any more personal details.
The concern was that she could potentially face push back from US officials for voicing her opinions on the Trump administration’s tightening of immigration restrictions.
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In a statement on Monday, the embassy said students from Ireland, and all foreign countries, seeking US educational and exchange visas would be required to make their social media profiles public to allow officials to review their online activity.
The US state department is committed to “upholding the highest standards of national security and public safety through our visa process”, it said, adding that “a US visa is a privilege, not a right”.
The approach, part of a crackdown by the Trump administration targeting would-be anti-Semitism, was criticised by the Taoiseach and Aontas na Mac Léinn in Éirinn, formerly the Union of Students in Ireland.
Ella said it feels as if “I have to go back on some of my morals and values” in order to meet immigration requirements despite Israel’s ongoing bombardment and blockade of Gaza.
She is not alone. J1 visa applications were down 25 per cent this year as some reconsidered their travel plans in accordance with their political views or activity.
Ella and three other Irish applicants have been accepted to study at the same university, with all of them wary of sharing their anxieties about going stateside online.
“We’re trying not to text about it,” she said. “We’re meeting up in person to talk about it. I don’t know, it’s so hard to know what’s going to happen but we’re just trying to avoid writing anything down.”
Standing at the back of the line waiting for her appointment outside the US embassy in Ballsbridge, Dublin, Ella said “yesterday I was really doubting if I even want to go”.
“My parents are telling me to take this opportunity but I’m just still doubting if I want to go,” she added.
Paul* is less apprehensive, but still recognises the uncertainty that looms over his trans-Atlantic trip.
“It’s completely out of my hands,” he said of whether or not his application would approved by US immigration officials.
When applying for an embassy appointment, he said he was asked to list all of his social media accounts.
“At the bottom of the page it says ‘do you feel like you want to include something else that isn’t listed here?’,” he said.
“It really makes you think: ‘Am I going to be caught in a corner here?’.“
He added: “I gave it away no bother, but afterwards I didn’t feel great about it, to be honest, because it’s your privacy at the end of the day. It’s a bit of a shift for ‘the land of free speech’, but you have to go with it.”
Paul is hoping to to go to New York for two months, having secured a job at a summer camp.
A part-time photographer, he said he did not wipe any content from his social media accounts, but was worried about one photograph which had a Palestinian flag in the background of a wider shot from a football match in Co Sligo.
“I was really stressed about that for a long time. I couldn’t sleep for a while actually just thinking about it,” he said.
Paul opted not to delete the post in the end.
“I love the photo too much,” he added.
*Names have been changed.
