New Delhi — Confusion and last-minute travel disruption swept through H-1B visa applicants in India this week after the U.S. State Department’s new social-media screening procedures led to widespread rescheduling of appointments. Many interviews set for December were pushed into next year.
The U.S. Embassy in India posted on X that applicants who received notices of rescheduling will be assisted on their new appointment dates and warned that arriving on the originally scheduled date could lead to denial of admittance to the embassy or consulate.
The delays follow tighter vetting measures that require applicants to make social accounts public and disclose all usernames used over the past five years. The situation intensified after the administration announced on December 3 an expanded security-screening protocol for H-1B applicants.
An internal State Department cable instructed consular officers to review applicants’ resumes and LinkedIn profiles — and in some cases the profiles of family members — for connections to work in areas such as misinformation, disinformation, content moderation, fact-checking, compliance, or online safety.
The fallout has been visible on social media and forums. Users on Reddit described cancelled flights, aborted trips and stressful, last-minute changes to biometrics and interview schedules. One user reported canceling a trip after being told to attend biometrics but awaiting confirmation on an interview date; others said they opted to postpone both travel and appointments amid uncertainty.
Applicants from other countries have been asking whether similar rescheduling is occurring outside India. Some posted that they had biometrics scheduled but had not yet received rescheduling notices.
The U.S. Mission in India has not provided a detailed timeline for further changes or clarified how widespread the reschedulings will be. Applicants are being advised to wait for official communications and not to attend embassies or consulates on dates if they have received a rescheduling notice.
