Overview
- Beginning December 15, consular officers will review the public online presence of H‑1B applicants and their H‑4 dependents, an expansion of checks previously applied to F, M and J visas.
- Screening will include publicly available social‑media activity and online work history, with heightened attention to roles in content moderation, misinformation, fact‑checking and related online‑speech work.
- Applicants are being advised to make accounts accessible during adjudication and to disclose all social‑media usernames used in the past five years.
- Legal analyses warn employers to expect more administrative processing, longer interviews, delays and possible denials, particularly for technology and social‑media sector roles.
- Indian applicants report cancellations of visa interviews on or after December 15 with instructions to reschedule, and the State Department has emphasized that each visa decision is a national security determination.