The Department of State (the DOS) has recently announced that individuals in H-1B visa status, as well as dependent family members in H-4 visa status, will be required to set their social media accounts to “public” when renewing their H visas at a US Consulate abroad so that DOS can conduct an online presence review. This was previously only required for international students (F, M, and J visa holders), but the Trump administration has broadened this to H visas as part of its more robust vetting procedures.
This week, we have received reports that US Consulates in India and elsewhere have rescheduled H visa interviews originally scheduled for this December to as late as June 2026, presumably to facilitate these stricter vetting procedures.
Any H-1B employees, and/or their H-4 family members, who will be traveling and need to renew their H visas prior to returning to the US, should reevaluate international travel at this time. Rescheduled dates are several months out, which could prevent employees and their dependents from returning to the US for an extended period of time. In some cases, new appointment dates seem to be completely unavailable.
Even consulates that are not rescheduling appointments will be offering fewer daily appointments going forward to accommodate the online presence review, making appointments more difficult to obtain in a timely manner.
Given the upcoming holiday travel season, H-1B employees and their employers should contact a member of the NP Immigration Team to discuss any planned international travel.