Thousands of Indian H-1B and H-4 visa holders are facing prolonged delays and growing uncertainty after the United States expanded mandatory social media screening for employment-based visa applicants, forcing consulates to push interview appointments well into 2026.
Krishna Iyer, an H-1B professional based in the U.S., received an unexpected email from the U.S. Consulate in Chennai earlier this month — just before boarding a flight to India — informing him that his visa renewal stamping interview, originally scheduled for late December 2025, had been automatically rescheduled to July 2026.
He is far from alone. Across India, thousands of H-1B and H-4 applicants have seen their visa renewal appointments deferred by several months, often without prior warning.
The disruption follows a U.S. State Department announcement that, effective December 15, consular officers will conduct mandatory reviews of applicants’ online presence for all H-1B specialty workers and their dependent family members. The policy expands a digital vetting framework first introduced earlier this year for F, M and J visa categories and marks the first time employment-based visas have been included.
Under the expanded screening rules, applicants must ensure that all social media accounts used in the past five years are set to public. Consular officers will review social media activity, publicly available online content and related digital footprints. The process may lead to additional security checks, longer processing times or visa refusals if officers flag concerning information. To manage the added workload, consular posts are reallocating staff, contributing to appointment backlogs.
Immigration attorneys say the impact has been immediate and severe.
“We are seeing significant issues with interview scheduling delays and status complications since the digital-identity screening took effect,” said Madhurima Paturi, an immigration lawyer based in Orlando, Florida.
Paturi said essential workers are among those most affected. She cited cases involving long-serving physicians on H-1B visas whose stamping appointments were postponed despite ongoing shortages in the U.S. health-care system. Emergency processing requests have been submitted to U.S. embassies on their behalf.
In other cases, applicants have become stranded outside the United States. One H-1B holder who travelled to India following the sudden death of a parent is now unable to return because their appointment was rescheduled, leaving families separated for months.
“Many people don’t know when or if their appointments will be moved forward,” Paturi said. “It’s creating distress for families, including H-4 spouses and young children. It’s starting to resemble the family-separation challenges we saw during the pandemic.”
Compounding the anxiety is a rise in what Paturi describes as “prudential” or temporary visa revocations. In these cases, consulates revoke previously issued H-1B or H-4 visas as a precautionary measure, often notifying applicants by email while they are already living in the U.S.
“These revocations do not imply permanent ineligibility,” she said. “They are temporary and precautionary, likely triggered by new data, expanded screening protocols or database flags.” Increased scrutiny of social media and online activity is believed to be a contributing factor.
For many Indian professionals who rely on timely visa stamping to maintain jobs, family stability and legal status, the expanded screening has added a new layer of uncertainty — with delays that could stretch close to a year or more.
