Originally Posted: 12/9/2025

On December 3, 2025, the Department of State (“DOS”) announced that, beginning December 15, 2025, H-1B visa applicants and their H-4 dependents will be subject to enhanced screening and vetting of their online presence. This is an expansion of enhanced screening procedures implemented for F, M, and J visa applicants in June 2025, which will now apply to all H-1B and H-4 visa applications as well.  

In the week following this announcement, we began to see a large number of H-1B visa appointments being rescheduled for several months later, causing significant disruption especially across consulates in India. 

Key points from the DOS update regarding expanded vetting of H-1B and H-4 visa applicants are summarized below (full announcement available here): 

• As of December 15th, consulates will expand online presence review for all H-1B applicants and their dependents. 

• To facilitate this vetting, all applicants for H-1B visas and their dependents (H-4) are instructed to adjust the privacy settings on all of their social media profiles to “public.” 

• Every visa adjudication is a national security decision. The United States must be vigilant during the visa issuance process to ensure that those applying for admission into the United States do not intend to harm Americans and our national interests, and that all applicants credibly establish their eligibility for the visa sought, including that they intend to engage in activities consistent with the terms for their admission. 

While the DOS update does not provide further detail on specific vetting requirements or review criteria to be applied to H-1B and H-4 visa applicants, it indicates this is an expansion of the enhanced screening procedures implemented for F, M, and J visa applicants in June 2025. Excerpts from a cable sent to consular officers for enhanced vetting of F, M, and J visas are included below as an indicator of what the DOS is likely to consider in the enhanced screening of H-1B and H-4 visa applicants. 

• Consulates are instructed to conduct “comprehensive and thorough vetting . . . to identify applicants who bear hostile attitudes towards our citizens, culture, government, institutions, or founding principles; who advocate for, aid, or support designated terrorists and other threats to U.S. national security; or who perpetrate unlawful antisemitic harassment or violence.”  

• Officers are instructed to look for “applicants who demonstrate a history of political activism, especially when it is associated with violence or with the views and activities described above” and “consider the likelihood they would continue such activity in the United States.”   

• Vetting procedures must include a review of the applicant’s “entire online presence – not just social media activity – using any appropriate search engines or other online resources,” including “a check of any databases to which the consular section has access.”  

• Officers are instructed to ask applicants to make all their social media accounts public and “remind the applicant that limited access to . . . online presence could be construed as an effort to evade or hide certain activity,” 

• Consular officers are to look for any potentially derogatory information about the applicant and use discretion to determine whether an applicant’s activism or other activity amounts to an actual threat.   

Applicants should expect longer processing times for H-1B and H-4 visas as well as limited appointment availability in some locations as a result of this update. Individuals should review the consular website for any further information, including the possibility of expedited appointments in locations with long wait times, although we expect these will be granted on a very limited basis. 

We are monitoring the situation closely and will update this page with any new information as we learn more.