US visa delays up to 10 months: Woes of stranded H-1B holders explained
Surbhi Gloria Singh, India Today, December 22, 2025
Indian H-1B visa holders who travelled back this month to renew their American work permits have been left stranded after US consular offices abruptly rescheduled their appointments.
Lawyers say interviews were cancelled between December 15 and 26, a period overlapping with the US holiday season. Emails reviewed by The Washington Post show the State Department informed visa holders that interviews were being delayed following the rollout of the Trump administration’s expanded social media vetting policy, introduced “to ensure that no applicants pose a threat to U.S. national security or public safety”.
What changed with social media checks for H-1B visas?
On December 10, the US Embassy in India confirmed that the United States had widened its review of social media and online activity to cover all H-1B specialty occupation workers and their H-4 dependents.
A US Embassy spokesperson said the Department of State already carries out online presence checks for student and exchange visitor visas under the F, M and J categories. From December 15, the same scrutiny was extended to H-1B and H-4 applicants.
How many Indian H-1B workers are affected?
Emily Neumann, a partner at Houston-based immigration firm Reddy Neumann Brown PC, said on social media she had at least 100 clients currently stranded in India. Veena Vijay Ananth, an immigration lawyer based in India, and Atlanta-based attorney Charles Kuck told Washington Post they were each handling around a dozen similar cases.
“This is the biggest mess we have seen. I’m not sure there is a plan,” Ananth said.
A State Department spokesperson said consular priorities had shifted. “While in the past the emphasis may have been on processing cases quickly and reducing wait times, our embassies and consulates around the world, including in India, are now prioritising thoroughly vetting each visa case above all else,” the spokesperson said.
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US visa delays up to 10 months: Woes of stranded H-1B holders explained | Immigration News - Business Standard
Hundreds, and possibly thousands, of Indian H-1B visa holders who travelled to India in December to renew their US work visas have been stranded after American consulates abruptly cancelled their interviews and rescheduled them, in some cases to October 2026. Immigration attorneys told the Washington Post that it was the "biggest mess" they had seen, adding they weren't sure if the Trump administration "had a plan in place".
Biggest mess, say US attorneys, as H-1B delay grounds hundreds of Indian techies |
