Overnight, consular appointments from Chennai to Hyderabad are being pushed into mid-2026 — leaving workers stranded, employers scrambling, and attorneys urging caution. As the U.S. begins social-media screening for H-1Bs, India has become the ground zero.
On Monday, December 8, 2025, a seemingly innocuous Reddit post from an H-1B worker stuck in India for a consular appointment sent shockwaves through the work-visa community and immigration law offices alike.
The poster, slated for a December 15 interview, reported receiving a curt email informing him that his slot had been postponed all the way to March 2026 — a three-month delay that could upend an entire career.
Within hours, similar stories poured in, as if someone had pried open Pandora’s box within the U.S. visa machinery. Another applicant, scheduled for fingerprinting on December 9, said he received the same cryptic postponement.
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A user going by StatementAgitated summed up the chaos with brutal clarity: “I already had my VAC yesterday and my 15th Dec consular appointment is rescheduled to March 27, 2026. I am already in India and I will be out of employment if I don’t go back before Jan ’26.”
The new development comes in the wake of a recent announcement by the agency about beginning social media screening of H-1B and H-4 visa holders. Multiple attorneys told the American Bazaar that the dates for which they have seen cancellations are between December 15 and 19 and the appointments are rescheduled to March, April, May, and June.
Cases of appointment rescheduling have emerged from U.S. consulates in Chennai and Hyderabad. Confused applicants relied on each other’s experiences to make sense of this situation unfolding in real time as they anxiously dealt with the possibility that this postponement could render them out of work for months.
Another applicant, in Chennai at the moment for an appointment that was rescheduled, shared the official email. It stated: “As of December 15, the Department of State will conduct an online presence review for all H-1B applicants and their dependents, in addition to the students and exchange visitors already subject to this review. Due to operational constraints related to processing these visas and to ensure that no applicants issued a visa pose a threat to U.S. national security or public safety, the U.S. Consulate in Chennai must reduce the number of applicants each day. The Consulate will not be able to see you on your original appointment date. Please do not show up at the Consulate. We look forward to assisting you on your new appointment date.”
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The email further advised that the applicants do not need to call or contact the consulate and just show up at the mission on the new appointment date.
On Tuesday, the U.S. Embassy in India, in a message posted on its X handle, stated the same.
ATTENTION VISA APPLICANTS – 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. Arriving on your previously scheduled appointment date will result in your being denied…
— U.S. Embassy India (@USAndIndia) December 9, 2025
Talking to The American Bazaar from Chennai, where a number of appointment postponements are being seen currently, immigration attorney Veena Vijay Ananth says, “As we speak, we are seeing cases where appointments scheduled for December 23 are cancelled and moved to July 2026.”
Attorneys are also strictly advising H-1B visa holders not to travel currently. “H-1B visa holders must plan their travel based on developments,” says Ananth. “It is best not to travel at this juncture until we have more details.”
For those who have now received emails postponing their appointments to much later dates, the question looms: what can they do next?
Ananth says, “Well, not many options but to mostly wait for a rescheduled appointment, especially the ones who have completed VAC will be stuck. As they cannot cancel the appointment on the system.”
That uncertainty raises another pressing question: can professionals stranded in India continue working for their U.S. employers remotely?
Immigration attorney Gnanamookan Senthurjothi, of the Visa Code says, “Well, technically yes, as U.S. immigration laws do not govern remote employment outside of the U.S.” However, he warns there are grey areas.
“Some officers at the port of entry have determined that the applicants have violated status and work outside of approved work locations,” he says. “This is not a legally sustainable interpretation but some applicants have been impacted earlier in the year and there is a possibility some officers may send these applicants back to India and revoke their valid visas during their re-entry to the U.S.”
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While the abrupt change has unsettled nearly all visa categories, there may still be a glimmer of hope for those holding valid visa stamps.
“If you hold a valid visa stamp and an approved I-797, you should be able to re-enter the United States and receive a fresh I-94 at port of entry, even if your earlier interview was rescheduled, provided all documentation remains valid,” California-based Malavika Nandivelugu, an immigration case manager at Law Offices of Kevin J. Stewart, says.
But Nandivelugu adds, “The times definitely look tough for first-time H-1Bs or H-4s coming through consular processing and for those whose visas have expired and traveled with an extension document; [it] looks like they need to wait.”
According to Ananth, there is light at the end of the tunnel for work-based visa holders in the U.S. “We feel this is a temporary issue and will be sorted out soon, except, of course, for those whose appointments were rescheduled by the consular posts,” she says, adding, “It looks like, this was done only to accommodate technical updates to their system and they seem to be buying time to cover the unplanned implementations.”