US visa appointment delays travel plans for many Indian tech workers

Heightened security vetting and administrative backlogs at consulates leave hundreds of Indian tech professionals stranded, with some renewal appointments pushed back by over a year

Several Indian professionals who have applied for extending their H-1B and H-4 visas are facing delays in securing US consular appointments, after the country started vetting social media accounts from December 15. Hundreds of appointments were reportedly cancelled between December 15 and 26, disrupting holiday travel plans of highly skilled workers.

 

The US State Department has told visa holders their appointments were being delayed “to ensure that no applicants … pose a threat to U.S. national security or public safety,” according to multiple news reports in that country. Emily Neumann, a partner at Houston-based immigration firm Reddy Neumann Brown PC, told The Washington Post that she had at least 100 clients stranded in India. Separately, an immigration attorney in India and another in Atlanta also told the newspaper they had more than a dozen similar cases.

   

Tech professionals bear the brunt

India accounted for 71 per cent of approved H-1B petitions, with 283,397 beneficiaries in fiscal year 2024, according to data from US Citizenship and Immigration Services. As many as 64 per cent of the petitions were in computer-related occupations, primarily by systems analysts and programmers. The median annual compensation for H-1B holders was $120,000, underlining the US tech sector’s reliance on skilled Indian talent.

 

The State Department estimates visa appointment waiting times at Indian consulates for petition-based temporary workers, such as H-1B holders, range from one or two months under normal circumstances. However, administrative processing and social media vetting have significantly extended these delays. Some renewal appointments have reportedly been pushed as far as 2027, according to The Washington Post.

 

Employment-based green card backlogs further trap H-1B holders in temporary visa status. For Indian nationals, EB-2 and EB-3 categories, common among tech professionals, face waits exceeding 12 years, according to the February 2026 Visa Bulletin.