Rescheduling of H-1B visa appointments disrupts NRIs India travel plans

US-based couple Meena and Sridhar (names changed) were looking forward to a trip back to India after three long years this December, but had to summarily cancel their plans because of H-1B visa issues. The couple’s visa expired recently, but their renewal appointment date in January in Chennai got rescheduled to August, so they are choosing to wait it out in the US, risky though it may be.

Many more Indians find their travel plans in disarray this holiday season as H-1B appointments at American consulates globally are getting rescheduled following a new social media screening requirement. This has not only disrupted travel plans but also created anxiety among Indians on work visas in the US.

“I came back to India with my wife and our newborn child for our H-1B renewal. Our appointment was originally scheduled for December but was postponed to May. Since my company doesn’t have a branch in my current city, I now have to find a co-working space and move to another city where it does,” said Suhas (name changed), the employee at a large US IT company.

B Kiran (name changed), who has been in the US on an H- 1B visa for over a decade, wanted to visit his mother in Hyderabad as she gets treated in a hospital of health complications. But his father asked him not to leave the US now for obvious reasons.

Some are even reconsidering their dream of having a gala wedding in India inviting their extended families. Sneha (name changed) was set to get married in January and also get her visa stamped, but with the groom also in the US, the families are now considering a cozy wedding in the US.

Global media Business Insider reported on Sunday that the legal team of big tech majors Google and Apple Google are warning employees on certain categories of work visa to not leave the US “due to significant return delays of up to a year.”

A US Embassy spokesperson said in a statement last week that beginning December 15, authorities will be expanding the review of social media for all H-1B visa applicants and their H-4 visa dependents. “The DOS regularly shifts appointments as needed to match resource availability. We will communicate any changes directly to affected visa applicants,” they stated then. 

“As this is a unique situation, the employers back in the US will be sympathetic to the plight and will extend WFH for most of them. These are engineers who are likely to be critical to tech companies in the USA, and they will ensure full support is provided to employees stranded in their home countries,” Kamal Karanth, CoFounder of specialist staffing firm Xpheno, noted. There are lots of personal disruptions but it may not be career-threatening, he added.

(With inputs from KV Kurmanath in Hyderabad and Sanjana B in Bengaluru)

Published on December 22, 2025