Amid the US government’s new social media vetting policy for H-1B visa applicants and their H-4 dependents, appointments across consulates in India have been postponed or rescheduled, with the US Embassy issuing an advisory on the immigration process.
The US Mission in India confirmed that visa appointments scheduled for December and the coming weeks had been shifted, with immigration attorneys saying many were pushed to March to allow time for the social media vetting.
The embassy warned that arriving on the previously scheduled appointment date "will result in your being denied admittance to the Embassy or Consulate."
According to a report in TOI, H-1B and H-4 visa appointments scheduled for mid to late December at the US consulates in Hyderabad and Chennai have been cancelled, with some rescheduled to March 2026.
This follows a December 4 directive from the US State Department stating that, from December 15, it will review the online activity of all H-1B and H-4 visa applicants, requiring them to keep every social-media profile set to "public" — an expansion of a measure already applied to students and exchange visitors.
"To facilitate this vetting, all applicants for H-1B and their dependents (H-4), F, M, and J nonimmigrant visas are instructed to adjust the privacy settings on all of their social media profiles to 'public'," it had said.
Underscoring that a US visa is a privilege and not a right, the department said it uses all available information in screening and vetting to identify visa applicants who are inadmissible or pose a threat to America's national security or public safety.
"Every visa adjudication is a national security decision," it said.
The department said the US "must be vigilant" to ensure applicants do not intend to harm Americans and that all visa applicants credibly establish eligibility and intent to comply with the terms of their admission.
The directive is the latest in a series of steps by the Trump administration to tighten immigration rules.
The administration has launched a massive crackdown to check abuse of the H-1B visa programme, used largely by US technology companies to hire foreign workers. Indian professionals, including tech workers and physicians, form one of the largest groups of H-1B visa holders.
In September, President Donald Trump issued a proclamation, titled 'Restriction on Entry of Certain Nonimmigrant Workers', imposing a one-time USD 100,000 fee on new H-1B work visas, an order that could significantly impact Indian workers seeking temporary employment in the US.