We’re monitoring important scheduling adjustments for H-1B and H-4 visa appointments, with interviews initially set for mid-December 2025 now being cancelled and moved as far out as April 2026.
These disruptions seem tied to the Division of State’s new necessary on-line presence evaluation, efficient December 15, 2025, which requires H-1B and H-4 visa candidates at consular posts to set their social media accounts to a public setting.
By the use of background, in June 2025, the State Division rolled out an analogous framework for F, M, and J college students and trade guests, and the inclusion of H-1B and H-4 candidates marks the primary growth of that coverage. The Division has indicated that this on-line presence evaluation covers:
- Social media accounts and exercise
- Different details about the applicant in on-line databases and on web sites
The latest announcement doesn’t describe the precise commonplace Consular Officers will use when reviewing H-1B and H-4 on-line presence. Nevertheless, H classes are being folded into the coverage already in place for F, M, and J candidates, and several other particulars about that coverage had been described in media reporting within the spring concerning a June 2025 State Division cable to consular posts.
In response to the State Division’s earlier cable, Consular Officers are instructed as follows:
- Candidates can be directed to set their social media accounts to a public setting. If an applicant retains parts of their account non-public or restricted, officers might draw a unfavourable inference in regards to the applicant’s credibility.
- The Division has additionally warned {that a} full lack of on-line or social media presence can, in some conditions, help a unfavourable inference.
- Officers are directed to scrutinize on-line presence for:
- Indications of “hostility towards the residents, tradition, authorities, establishments, or founding ideas of the USA”
- Indications that an applicant advocated for, aided, or supported designated overseas terrorists and different nationwide safety threats, or “perpetrate[d] illegal antisemitic harassment or violence”
- Indications that an applicant may “steal technical data, exploit U.S. analysis and improvement, and unfold false data for political or different causes”
- Whether or not an applicant “show[s] a historical past of political activism” and whether or not there’s a “chance they’d proceed such exercise in the USA”
If Consular Officers determine data they view as derogatory, they will refuse the applying outright or require the applicant to look for a follow-up interview. Discovery of such content material may also set off further evaluation to find out whether or not the overseas nationwide will respect U.S. legal guidelines and have interaction solely in actions in keeping with their nonimmigrant standing.
Media shops that reportedly reviewed the State Division cable addressing the web presence coverage as utilized to H-1B and H-4 candidates point out that the important thing focus for these classes is whether or not the applicant has been chargeable for, or complicit in, the “censorship or tried censorship” of U.S. residents at any level of their employment or private historical past.
Employers and affected overseas nationals ought to anticipate that H-1B and H-4 visa appointment availability will tighten as consular posts take in the extra work related to the web presence evaluation.
The brand new vetting requirements improve the chance that some candidates can be flagged for prolonged background checks and extra safety evaluation. In observe, this will imply:
- Longer waits between the visa interview and visa issuance
- Extra frequent follow-up interviews
- A better incidence of visa refusal the place consular officers conclude that on-line content material is derogatory or inconsistent with the acknowledged function of journey
H-1B visa candidates going through doable delays ought to keep in shut contact with their employer and immigration counsel. Any overseas nationwide planning worldwide journey, whether or not they already maintain a legitimate visa or might want to apply for a brand new one, ought to evaluation these on-line presence points and timing dangers fastidiously earlier than finalizing plans to journey overseas.
