H-1B visa holders who returned to India this month to renew their US work permits have been left stranded after American consulates abruptly cancelled their appointments and pushed them back by several months, The Washington Post reported, citing three immigration attorneys who handle H-1B cases.
In some cases, the rescheduled dates extend to mid-2026 or even 2027, leaving them stuck in India and facing serious uncertainty about their employment, as per reports.
The US embassy in India has urged visa applicants not to come to the consular offices based on their previously scheduled interview dates.
“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,” US embassy in India posted on X.
“Arriving on your previously scheduled appointment date will result in your being denied admittance to the Embassy or Consulate,” it said.
Immigration lawyers told The Washington Post that the sudden cancellations have upended lives, leaving workers on expired visas fearful of losing their jobs. Emily Neumann, a partner at the Houston-based immigration firm Reddy Neumann Brown PC, said she had at least 100 clients stranded in India.
The report also mentioned “hundreds, possibly thousands” of Indians are believed to have been affected by the unannounced move for the appointments between December 15 and 26.
Emails reviewed by The Washington Post show that the State Department informed applicants their interviews were being postponed following the rollout of the Trump administration’s new social media screening policy, citing the need to ensure that no applicants pose a threat to US national security or public safety.
Veena Vijay Ananth, an immigration attorney in India, and Charles Kuck, who practices immigration law in Atlanta, said they each had more than a dozen similar cases. These lawyers said many of those affected by the sudden H-1B visa rules are tech workers in their 30s or 40s, who have been living in the United States for years.
“This is the biggest mess we have seen,” said Ananth, who has worked on H-1B cases for over 20 years. “I’m not sure there is a plan.”
The Washington Post reported that a spokesperson for the State Department said that “while in the past the emphasis may have been on processing cases quickly and reducing wait times, our embassies and consulates around the world, including in India, are now prioritising thoroughly vetting each visa case above all else.”
An engineer told Post that the changes to the H-1B programme are misguided because foreign workers help power many leading American companies. “If you see an overnight exodus of people working on H-1Bs, I promise you, a lot of companies are going to fall flat," he said.
The search giant Google has also warned its visa-bound employees not to travel abroad as a result of the circumstances. Employees have been advised not to leave the country due to the significant increase in visa processing times.
In September, Alphabet had advised its employees to avoid international travel and urged H-1B visa holders to remain in the US, according to an email seen by Reuters.
The H-1B visa program — widely used by the US technology sector to hire skilled workers from India and China — has been under the spotlight after the Trump administration in September imposed a $100,000 fee for new applications. Additional curbs have also forced applicants to open up their social media profiles and face multiple changes to the selection process.
The H-1B programme enables US companies to employ foreign workers with specialised skills for an initial period of three years, which can be extended for an additional three years.