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Beginning December 8, 2025, applicants with H-1B and H-4 visa appointments began receiving notices that their consular interviews, scheduled on or after December 15, 2025, were being unilaterally rescheduled. There have been specific reports of rescheduling from the consular posts in Hyderabad and Chennai as well as some in Ireland and Vietnam. Many appointments have been rescheduled for March 2026 while others have been rescheduled to June 2026. In some case the biometrics appointment may remain the same. This phenomenon is in reaction to the December 3, 2025, announcement that the Department of State expanded its online presence review requirement to all H-1B principal
applicants and H-4 dependents, effective December 15, 2025. DOS previously issued a similar directive that applied to F, M, and J visa applicants effective June 18, 2025. The new DOS directive instructs H-1B and H-4 applicants (in addition to F, M and J applicants) to ensure the privacy settings on their social media accounts are set to “public” to facilitate the screening.
Consular officers have been instructed to review LinkedIn profiles or resumes of H-1B and H-4 visa applicants. Resumes are being screened for work in areas that include “activities such as misinformation, disinformation, fact-checking, compliance and online safety, among others.” The additional review is expected to reduce appointment availability at US consular posts.
Those who intend to travel internationally in the coming months and who need to obtain a current H-1B or H-4 visa stamp for successful re-entry to the United States, may want to consider canceling their intended travel at this time. If the H-1B or H-4 visa applicant forges ahead with travel, they run the risk that they may be stuck outside the US for an unknown amount of time if their visa appointment is canceled or rescheduled.
All those with scheduled H-1B or H-4 visa appointments should log into their visa account to check the status of their appointment, check any message center notifications, and retrieve any updated appointment letters. Anyone who needs to re-schedule may only do so once, and only if the fee receipt for that appointment remains valid. Anyone currently outside the US who has already received a cancellation notice should communicate immediately with their employers to discuss contingency plans.
Need to discuss a specific case? As always, please reach out to our immigration team.
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