The US Embassy in India delivered a devastating blow Tuesday night to thousands of H-1B visa applicants, announcing mass postponement of interviews originally scheduled for December 2025 and shifting them deep into March 2026 and beyond as the Trump administration’s aggressive new social media screening policy takes effect.

In a blunt advisory, the embassy warned that applicants who attempt to appear on their original interview dates will be physically denied entry at the gates, confirming that mid-to-late December slots have been systematically cancelled to allow consular officers time to comb through every public social media histories under the expanded national security vetting protocol beginning December 15.

Immigration attorneys confirmed the scale of the disruption, with one senior partner revealing that Mission India has already begun bulk-rescheduling appointments into the second quarter of next year, leaving highly skilled professionals and their H-4 dependent families in limbo during the critical holiday hiring season.

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The sweeping new rule mandates that every H-1B and H-4 applicant maintain completely public privacy settings across all social media platforms, enabling US officials to scrutinize years of posts, likes, and connections for any content deemed a threat to national security or public safety, marking a dramatic escalation of the flagship skilled-worker program.

This latest restriction follows President Trump’s earlier $100,000 surcharge on new H-1B petitions and the ongoing freeze on green cards and citizenship applications from 19 designated countries of concern, collectively forming the most aggressive clampdown on legal high-skilled immigration in decades and threatening to derail corporate hiring plans across Silicon Valley and beyond.

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