Indian student denied US visa, Ivy League scholarship claims ‘social media vetting’ behind rejected

An Indian student at Columbia University, also a freelance journalist, was denied a visa by the US administration.

Kaushik Raj, who secured admission to the Ivy League institution’s MS with a $100,000 scholarship in Data Journalism, was reportedly rejected by the visa officer in the same month of the commencement of the post-graduate programme in August 2025.

Raj claimed that he was not active on the internet and never posted personal opinions on global issues like Gaza. “But I did share my reporting — stories on hate crimes and India’s treatment of Muslims,” he told the Washington Post.

He reportedly said that the visa application took a lot of time. The US government had briefly stopped issuing student visas, and when it resumed, there were no appointment slots available. He then managed to get a slot after 10 days.

Raj has claimed that the reason behind the visa refusal was linked to the social media vetting.

According to report, Raj claimed that his visa interview took place on July 29, and was handed a slip to make my social media public. On August 4, the application status was refused. However, on August 11, it changed to administrative processing, and it turned back to ‘refused’ on August 14.

The rejection letter reportedly reasoned that Raj had not demonstrated that he had the ties that will compel him to return to his home country after the travel to the United States.