From December 15, the US will expand the vetting of social media accounts to all H-1B visa applicants as well as their dependents, the US Embassy spokesperson said on Wednesday.
“The Department of State conducts thorough vetting of all visa applicants, including an online presence review of all student and exchange visitor applicants in the F, M, and J non-immigrant classifications. Beginning December 15, we are expanding the online presence review to all specialty occupation temporary worker (H-1B) visa applicants and their dependents in the H-4 visa classification,” the US Embassy spokesperson in Delhi said in a statement.
“In every visa case, we will take the time necessary to ensure an applicant does not pose a risk to the safety and security of the United States and that he or she has credibly established his or her eligibility for the visa sought, including that the applicant intends to engage in activities consistent with the terms of admission. The Department of State regularly shifts appointments as needed to match resource availability. We will communicate any changes directly to affected visa applicants,” the spokesperson said.
This expanding social media scrutiny of applications comes three months after the US administration led by President Donald Trump increased the fee for new H-1B applicants to about US$ 100,000 (about Rs 88 lakh) — from about $2,000-$5,000, depending on employer size and other costs.
Earlier in the day, the US Embassy posted on X: “Attention Visa Applicants — If you have received an email advising that your visa appointment has been rescheduled, Mission India looks forward to assisting you on your new appointment date. Arriving on your previously scheduled appointment date will result in your being denied admittance to the Embassy or Consulate.”
In June this year, citing “national security and public safety”, the US had said that all applicants for student visas must make their social media accounts public. “Effective immediately, all individuals applying for an F, M or J non-immigrant visa are requested to adjust the privacy settings on all of their social media accounts to ‘public’ to facilitate vetting necessary to establish their identity and admissibility to the United States under US law,” the US Embassy had said in New Delhi on June 23.
The F category visa (F-1) is issued to students who want to pursue academic studies; M category visa (M-1) to those who want to pursue vocational or other non-academic studies; J category visa (J-1) to those who want to teach, study, conduct research, or receive on-the-job training for periods ranging from a few weeks to several years.
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In May, the US administration had asked its embassies to stop scheduling appointments for student visas as it expanded scrutiny of applicants’ social media posts.
India-born professionals are the biggest beneficiaries of the H-1B visas. Between October 2022 and September 2023, 72 per cent of the nearly 4 lakh visas issued under the H-1B programme went to Indian nationals. During the same period, top four Indian IT majors with a presence in the US — Infosys, TCS, HCL and Wipro – obtained approval for around 20,000 employees to work on H-1B visas, as per the latest US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) data.
