Important Travel Warning for Indian Nationals Requiring New Visas
On December 3, 2025, the U.S. Department of State announced that it will expand its existing online presence review and social-media screening to include all H-1B specialty occupation visa applicants and their H-4 dependents, effective December 15, 2025. This expansion builds on similar screening already applied to F, M, and J category nonimmigrant visa applicants.
Under the new policy, all H-1B and H-4 visa applicants will be subject to review of their publicly available online presence, including social media profiles and other online information. H-1B and H-4 visa applicants are instructed to set all social media accounts to “public” to facilitate vetting.
Due to this new vetting policy, U.S. consular posts in India began issuing notices to H-1B and H-4 applicants that interviews scheduled on or after December 15, 2025, have been rescheduled—often into March/April 2026. Posts are reducing the number of daily interviews to accommodate the additional vetting associated with the online presence review, creating staffing and scheduling constraints.
Therefore, we are warning all Indian nationals who require new H-1B and H-4 visas against travel. Even if your appointment has not been cancelled as of today, it could be cancelled after your departure from the U.S. You may find yourself stuck abroad waiting to be rescheduled for 3-6+ months.
Some applicants are receiving notices from embassies informing them not to show up on their original interview date and instead to attend on the newly assigned appointment. We advise clients to log in to their visa appointment profiles to retrieve updated appointment letters and check message-center notifications for rescheduling updates regularly. Applicants who cannot attend the new date may reschedule online, provided their visa fee receipt is still valid (receipts older than one year are considered expired).
Iandoli Desai and Cronin, PC will continue to monitor the situation and provided updates.