New Social Media Vetting for H-1B and H-4 Visa Applicants

The U.S. Department of State (DOS) has announced that effective December 15, 2025, consular posts will expand mandatory “online presence review” screening to all H-1B visa applicants and their H-4 dependents. This builds on the agency’s earlier directive applying enhanced social media vetting to F, M, and J student and exchange visitor visa applicants in June 2025.

Under the updated guidance, H-1B and H-4 applicants will be expected to make their social media profiles public to facilitate consular review. While the DOS has not publicly outlined the complete scope of this screening, it will likely mirror the June 2025 framework for F, M, and J applicants, under which consular staff were directed to review applicants’ entire online presence for signs of antisemitism, political activism, hostility toward American values, or ties to terrorist organizations.

Since their announcement on December 3, 2025, there are reports of H-1B and H-4 applicants with interviews scheduled on or after December 15 report receiving notices that their consular interviews were being rescheduled, often to March 2026, and in some cases as far as summer 2026. 

Consular posts are attributing the rescheduling to operational constraints tied to implementing the new online presence review, including the expectation that posts will need to reduce daily interview capacity to complete this expanded screening. While most reports involve consular posts in India, there have also been reports of rescheduled appointments in Ireland and Vietnam. This development comes on top of the DOS’s September directive limiting applicants to interviews in their country of nationality or residence, which has already constrained scheduling flexibility and worsened backlogs at high-demand posts.

Separately, Reuters reported that this expanded screening was accompanied by an internal cable directing consular officers to review LinkedIn profiles and resumes for H-1B and H-4 applicants. The cable reportedly flags prior work involving misinformation/disinformation, fact-checking, compliance, online safety, and related areas, and instructs officers to consider an ineligibility finding if they uncover evidence an applicant was responsible for, or complicit in, censorship of protected expression in the United States. If your background includes work in these areas, we do not recommend that you travel or apply for a visa stamp at this time.

Given these developments, if you have an H-1B or H-4 visa stamping appointment scheduled on or after December 15, and your return to the United States depends on timely visa issuance, we do not recommend international travel at this time given the risk of cancellation, rescheduling, and extended processing delays. Alternatively, we recommend purchasing flexible flight tickets and travel insurance. 

This alert is for informational purposes only. Please contact us if you would like to discuss this development further.