H-1B Social-Media Screening to Start Dec 15: New U.S. Rules

In a sweeping expansion of America’s digital-vetting regime, the U.S. State Department has announced that all H-1B visa applicants and their H-4 dependents will undergo mandatory social-media screening beginning December 15. The late-Wednesday notice confirms that every applicant must switch their accounts to public visibility, allowing consular officers to comb through posts, interactions, and online behaviour before deciding their visa fate.

Immigration attorneys say the new requirement marks the most significant tightening of U.S. visa scrutiny in years, especially because it now captures the highly skilled workforce that fuels America’s tech ecosystem.

Mitch Wexler, senior counsellor at global immigration law firm Fragomen, said the change is part of a steady deepening of Washington’s digital-footprint policy. “An online presence review has been in place for F, M and J visa applicants since late June 2025. The expansion to include the H-1B and H-4 categories is the first major ramp-up,” he explained. He also cautioned that applicants should prepare for far more intensive evaluation of their posts, comments, and overall digital identity.

H-1B: What U.S. Consular Officers Will Look For

According to the State Department, consular teams will review social-media accounts, public posts, and information across online platforms and databases. Officials reiterated that “every visa adjudication is a national security decision”, underscoring that holding a U.S. visa remains “a privilege, not a right.”

Internal guidance circulated earlier this year for student-visa reviews — now expected to influence the H-1B social-media screening process — outlines several potential red flags:

• Keeping parts of one’s account private

• Having no online presence

• Content showing hostility toward U.S. institutions or citizens

• Any support for designated terror groups

• Attempts to access or misuse sensitive U.S. technology

• Patterns of political activism that might continue after arrival in the U.S.

• Derogatory, inflammatory, or questionable digital behaviour

Such findings can trigger follow-up interviews, deep background checks, month-long delays, or outright visa denial.

Delays Likely — Especially for Indian Tech Workers

Wexler warned that the expanded scrutiny will increase the workload at U.S. consulates worldwide. “Applicants may face a higher likelihood of being flagged for lengthy background checks and longer waits for visa issuance. This could delay the ability of H-1B and H-4 applicants to travel to the U.S.,” he said.

This raises concerns for India, whose nationals dominate the H-1B programme. According to USCIS data, Indians secured about 80,500 new H-1B visas in FY2024, far ahead of China’s 19,600.

H-1B: New Pressure on Digital Speech and Tech Professionals

The heightened screening comes at a time when digital behaviour has become a contentious subject in U.S. policy circles. A recent internal cable, reported by Reuters, directs consular officers to check the LinkedIn and résumé histories of H-1B applicants and their dependents for past employment in areas such as:

• misinformation

• disinformation

• content moderation

• fact-checking

• compliance

• online safety

The cable explicitly instructs officers to deny visas if they find evidence that an applicant participated in or enabled censorship of “protected expression” in the U.S., citing a specific ineligibility clause under the Immigration and Nationality Act.

Immigration Attorneys Raise Free-Speech Concerns

The policy has triggered sharp criticism from immigration lawyers who say it places tech workers in a no-win situation.

Rajiv S. Khanna of Immigration.com expressed dismay: “It is ironic that a country that calls itself a beacon of free speech appears not to appreciate it.”

Cyrus D. Mehta, a noted immigration attorney, told TOI that the framework is internally contradictory. “The policy to punish H-1B holders who may have been involved in censorship in the tech sector appears hypocritical,” he said. “An executive at a social-media company could be penalised for moderating content — even if the content was harmful, abusive, or wildly inaccurate. At the same time, the administration will not hesitate to punish applicants for expressing views they disfavor, including perspectives perceived as anti-American, even when such views are protected by the First Amendment.”