The US Embassy in India on Monday said starting December 15, the United States has "expanded" online presence reviews to all H-1B and H-4 applicants as part of standard visa screening, and this vetting is being conducted globally for "all applicants of all nationalities" for these two visa categories.
The brief statement by the embassy in a post on social media comes amid pre-scheduled interviews of thousands of H-1B visa applicants slated for later this month in India being abruptly postponed by several months.
Amid the hardship faced by many of these applicants, the US Embassy here posted on X, "WORLDWIDE ALERT FOR H-1B AND H-4 VISA APPLICANTS Beginning December 15, the Department of State expanded online presence reviews to ALL H-1B and H-4 applicants as part of standard visa screening. This vetting is being conducted globally for ALL applicants of ALL nationalities for H1-B and H-4 visas (sic)."
The H-1B visa programme is used extensively by American technology companies to employ foreign workers. Indian professionals, including technology workers and physicians, form one of the largest groups of H-1B visa holders.
The brief statement also comes at a time when the US has launched a crackdown to check abuse of the H-1B visa programme, as also illegal immigration.
The embassy in its post also said, "It is an effort to address abuse of the H-1B program while still permitting companies to hire the best of the best temporary foreign workers."
US embassies and consulates continue to accept and process H-1B and H-4 nonimmigrant visa applications, it said, adding, "We encourage applicants to apply as early as they can and anticipate additional processing time for these visa classifications".
The rescheduling of the interviews is for all applicants who were previously given appointments from December 15 onwards.
The mass cancellation of scheduled interviews of the H-1B visa applicants in view of the enhanced vetting measures is set to result in significant delays in their return to the US.
A large number of applicants have already arrived in India and are now unable to return to the US since they don't have a valid H1B visa to travel back to the US for their jobs.
For example, those whose interviews were scheduled for December 15 had received emails postponing the date to sometime in March. Applicants whose appointments were scheduled for December 19 were given new dates in late May.
The US Embassy through many posts on X in the past several months has underlined that a US visa is "a privilege, not a right".
On June 19, it wrote in a post, "A US visa is a privilege, not a right. US visa screening does not stop after a visa is issued – and we may revoke your visa if you break the law".
On June 23, the US Embassy had asked those applying for an F, M, or J non-immigrant visa to switch the privacy settings of their social media accounts to “public” to facilitate vetting, which it said was necessary to establish their identity and admissibility to the US under law.
In a written reply to a question in the Rajya Sabha, Minister of State for External Affairs Kirti Vardhan Singh had on December 18 said that the US Administration has recently announced that every visa adjudication is a national security decision.
The US has also clarified that a US visa is a privilege, not a right, he said.
"As part of the follow-up measures, the US Administration (through notifications dated June 18 and December 3 respectively) has expanded screening and vetting to identify visa applicants who are inadmissible to the United States.
"This is applicable for student and exchange visitor applicants the F, M, and J non-immigrant classifications, as well as H-1B applicants and their dependents (H4 visa applicants), further impacting visa appointment schedules," the MoS had said.
Visa issuance and the related policy and procedural frameworks are the sovereign prerogative of the concerned country, Singh said.
The government of India "remains engaged" with the US government to promote mutually advantageous and secure mobility frameworks that allow for streamlining avenues for legal mobility of students and professionals, as well as facilitating short-term tourist and business travel, he had said in his written response.
