Visa appointments in India scheuled this week or the next have suddenly been rescheduled to as late as March, throwing a spanner in travel, business tours, leading to major confusion amid visa applicants. Several H-1B and H-4 appointments also got canceled as the new social media vetting of applicants is beginning on December 15. The US Embassy in India issued a note to the applicants clarifying that dates are being rescheduled and that’s how things will be processed. Applicants should not come to the consular office on their previous appointment date. “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 admittance to the Embassy or Consulate,” the US Embassy in India said in a social media post. Immigration attorney Steven Brown said it will be all over the place if present appointments are rescheduled to March. “Mission India confirms what we have been hearing. They have cancelled a number of appointments in the coming weeks and rescheduled them for March to allow for the social media vetting,” Brown said. “Note the ones I’ve seen are rescheduled for March. I’m sure it’ll be all over the place,” the Houston-based immigration attorney said.

H-1B visa revocation too

Not only cancelation of appointments in India, H-1B and H-4 visa holders in the US are also seeing a lot of sudden revocations, immigration attorney Emily Neumann said. “We are seeing more prudential visa revocations for H-1B and H-4 holders who had a past interaction with law enforcement, even with no conviction. Many of these incidents were already disclosed and cleared in earlier visa stamps. A revocation does not affect lawful stay in the United States, but it means the issue will be reexamined at the next visa appointment. Hard to see how this is an efficient use of government resources when the incident was already previously vetted,” Neumann wrote.