US to expand social media vetting for H-1B, H-4 visa applicants from today

The Trump administration will begin enhanced screening and vetting of H-1B visa applicants and their dependents from Monday, including mandatory checks of their social media profiles, as part of a wider crackdown on immigration.

In a new directive, the US State Department said that from 15 December, it will conduct a review of the online presence of all applicants seeking H-1B visas and H-4 dependent visas. Until now, such scrutiny applied primarily to student and exchange visitor categories.

“With effect from December 15, a review of the online presence for all H-1B applicants and their dependents (H-4) will be conducted,” the department said.

Under the expanded guidelines, applicants for H-1B, H-4, F, M and J nonimmigrant visas have been instructed to change the privacy settings on all their social media accounts to “public” to facilitate vetting.

“To facilitate this vetting, all applicants for H-1B and their dependents (H-4), F, M, and J nonimmigrant visas are instructed to adjust the privacy settings on all of their social media profiles to ‘public’,” the State Department said.

The F, M and J visas are used by international students and exchange visitors, who were already subject to online presence reviews. The latest order formally extends the same requirement to skilled foreign workers and their families.

Impact on applicants

Several H-1B visa holders in India have reported that their visa interviews have been rescheduled following the issuance of the new guideline, amid preparations for the expanded vetting process.

Emphasising that entry into the United States is discretionary, the State Department reiterated that a US visa is a privilege, not a right.

“We conduct thorough vetting of all visa applicants, including online presence review of all student and exchange visitor applicants in the F, M, and J nonimmigrant classifications,” it said, adding that every visa adjudication is a national security decision.

“The United States must be vigilant during the visa issuance process to ensure that those applying for admission do not intend to harm Americans or US national interests,” the department said, noting that applicants must credibly establish eligibility and intent consistent with visa conditions.

Part of broader immigration crackdown

The move is the latest in a series of restrictive immigration measures announced by the Trump administration. In recent months, Washington has intensified scrutiny of the H-1B programme, which is widely used by technology companies and healthcare institutions to employ skilled foreign workers.

Indian professionals — particularly IT workers and physicians — constitute one of the largest groups of H-1B visa holders.

In September, President Donald Trump issued a proclamation titled “Restriction on Entry of Certain Nonimmigrant Workers”, which the administration described as an initial step toward reforming the H-1B programme. The proclamation included a proposal for a one-time fee of $100,000 on new H-1B visas, a measure that could significantly affect Indian nationals seeking employment in the US.

The administration has also paused Green Card, citizenship and other immigration applications from nationals of 19 “countries of concern” following a shooting involving National Guard soldiers. Additionally, the USCIS (US Citizenship and Immigration Services) has placed all asylum applications on hold, pending a comprehensive review.

These measures follow a travel ban announced in June, underscoring the administration’s increasingly restrictive stance on immigration across visa categories.

With PTI inputs