H-1B Visa Interviews Delayed in India Amid Social Media Review

The US State Department is postponing H-1B visa interviews in India slated for later this month, citing constraints from new social media scrutiny for the visa category, according to multiple attorneys and text of emails reviewed by Bloomberg Law.

The agency announced earlier this month that it will begin social media screening of H-1B applicants and family members on dependent visas, expanding review of online profiles that initially began with student visa holders earlier this year.

Interviews scheduled between mid to late December are being pushed back as late as next summer, attorneys said, meaning many foreign workers renewing visa stamps could be delayed returning to the US for months while they wait for new appointments. The State Department hasn’t clarified whether all appointments this month are being moved and didn’t respond to a request for comment.

The new screening is just the latest scrutiny of the H-1B program, the primary immigration pathway for skilled foreign workers that’s come under increasing pressure from the Trump administration. The administration this fall added a $100,000 fee for new H-1B workers admitted from abroad as well as proposed an overhaul of the annual visa lottery. Multiple federal agencies have also made violations of the program a new focus.

A cable to consular officers directed that the screening look for work involving “censorship” of free speech, encouraging them to review resumes and LinkedIn profiles.

Consular officials had already started reviewing the social media profiles of F-1 student visa applicants following a multi-week freeze in student visa processing earlier this year. Like student visa seekers, H-1B applicants and their dependents seeking H-4 visas will be required to make social media profiles public starting Dec. 15.

H-1B and H-4 visa applicants with interview appointments Dec. 15 and later began receiving email notifications from US consulates this week that their appointments would be rescheduled as a result of the new social media reviews.

“Due to operational constraints related to processing these visas and to ensure that no applicants issued a visa pose a threat to U.S. national security or public safety, the U.S. Consulate in Chennai must reduce the number of applicants each day,” according to text of the emails reviewed by Bloomberg Law.

Applicants’ appointments for biometric submissions will not change, the messages said.

The State Department didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment on the interview delays or how many appointments would be affected. The US Embassy in India posted on X Tuesday that arriving at previously scheduled appointment times “will result in your being denied admittance to the Embassy or Consulate.”

The appointment changes come amid one of the busiest season for visa applications in India.

“There will be thousands of people stuck there,” said immigration attorney Ellen Freeman, who has seen clients’ interviews postponed.

H-1B workers looking to renew visa stamps won’t have the opportunity to seek appointments outside India. The State Department in September announced that international workers on temporary visas would be restricted to interviews at consular offices in their home country of nationality or residence, one of a slate of newly added hurdles for visa applicants.

The abrupt rescheduling of appointments can’t be viewed as anything other than an intentional decision to disrupt travel plans of potentially thousands of H-1B workers who already booked travel to India during the holiday period to apply for or renew visas, said James Hollis, an immigration attorney and partner at McEntee Law Group who has also seen interview delays.

“We talk to people for months about booking appointments in India over the holiday period,” he said. “That they are going to rug pull those people is a low blow even for this administration.”