NEW DELHI — Indian H-1B visa holders who traveled back to India this month to renew their American work permits are now stranded far from home after their appointments were abruptly canceled by U.S. consular offices and rescheduled for months later, according to three immigration lawyers who specialize in H-1B cases.
Hundreds, possibly thousands, of high-skilled workers had appointments canceled between Dec. 15 and 26, the lawyers said, a period many H-1B holders target for renewal since it coincides with the U.S. holiday season. In emails viewed by The Washington Post, the State Department told visa holders their interviews were being delayed after the implementation of the Trump administration’s new social media vetting policy, “to ensure that no applicants … pose a threat to U.S. national security or public safety.”
The H-1B immigration program — which has allowed hundreds of thousands of foreign workers with specialized skills to live and work in the United States for up to six years — has been a source of controversy during Trump’s second term. Some of his most influential far-right backers have called for the program to be eliminated, arguing it takes jobs from U.S. citizens. But tech executives in Silicon Valley have pushed back, saying H-1B workers are vital for their industry.
The sudden cancellations have upended lives, the lawyers said, leaving workers on expired visas fearful of losing their jobs. Emily Neumann, a partner at the Houston-based immigration firm Reddy Neumann Brown PC, said she had at least 100 clients stranded in India. Veena Vijay Ananth, an immigration attorney in India, and Charles Kuck, who practices immigration law in Atlanta, said they each had more than a dozen similar cases.
Many of those affected are tech workers in their 30s and 40s, the lawyers said, who have lived in the United States for years. They are now scrambling to find alternative work arrangements with their U.S. companies. Some who traveled to India with their kids must now decide whether to keep them out of school or send them home alone; others are separated from their families entirely.
“This is the biggest mess we have seen,” said Ananth, who has worked on H-1B cases for over 20 years. “I’m not sure there is a plan.”
Asked for comment, the White House and the U.S. Embassy in India referred The Post to the State Department.
A spokesperson for the State Department said that “while in the past the emphasis may have been on processing cases quickly and reducing wait times, our embassies and consulates around the world, including in India, are now prioritizing thoroughly vetting each visa case above all else.”
‘They’re devastated’
India has long been the biggest beneficiary of the H-1B program, accounting for 71 percent of visa holders, according to an April 2025 report from U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS). As of September, Amazon, Meta and Microsoft were the three largest sponsors of H-1B workers, the USCIS data shows. Amazon founder Jeff Bezos owns The Washington Post.
In July, the State Department announced that H-1B holders, and their dependents on H4 visas, would no longer be able to renew their documents remotely or in a third country as of Sept. 2 — requiring them to return to their home countries to complete the process. On Sept. 19, Trump signed a proclamation imposing a $100,000 payment for new H-1B applications.
On Dec. 3, the Trump administration announced “expanded screening and vetting” procedures for H-1B and H4 dependent visa holders, including a review of their online presence. “Every visa adjudication is a national security decision,” the State Department said. “A U.S. visa is a privilege, not a right.”
In the following days, H-1B visa holders with renewal appointments in mid-to-late December started receiving emails from the State Department saying that “operational constraints” had forced consulates to reduce the number of appointments they could take each day, according to messages reviewed by The Post.
The bulk of the renewal appointments are being rescheduled between March and June, the three lawyers said; one applicant was given a makeup date in 2027. Ananth said there’s very little guidance she can give to her heartsick clients.
“They’re devastated,” she said.
‘What do I do?’
An Indian man who lives in the Detroit suburbs and works as an engineer said he flew back to India in early December for a wedding and had consular appointments set up for Dec. 17 and 23 to renew his H-1B visa, which is now expired. He spoke to The Post on the condition of anonymity for fear of jeopardizing his immigration status.
On Dec. 8, he got a series of emails from the State Department saying his consular appointment had been canceled and rescheduled for July 2 — more than six months away. “I was like ‘OK, What do I do?’” he recalled. The engineer has a wife in the United States on her own H-1B visa and a 5-year-old son. On Friday, he said, he was able to secure an expedited appointment after his company submitted documentation showing several of the projects he’s working on are ramping up next year.
But he’s still apprehensive: “I’m hoping they honor it and don’t just bump it out further,” he said. Lawyers said such exemptions are rare.
The changes to the H-1B program are misguided, the engineer said, because foreign workers help power many leading American companies. He cited a recent job search he oversaw, where he said it would have been easier to hire a U.S. citizen for a technical role, but the lion’s share of candidates with the requisite engineering and work experience were H-1B holders.
“If you see an overnight exodus of people working on H-1B’s, I promise you, a lot of companies are going to fall flat,” he said.
Unable to predict when employees will return, U.S. tech executives are scrambling to come up with accommodations and work arounds, said a person familiar with the issue.
“They don’t know how to deal with this,” the person said, speaking on the condition of anonymity to describe the sentiment of his corporate clients.
The critical question, said Neumann, the Houston-based attorney, is “how long are companies going to be willing to wait for these people?”
People stranded in India have turned to online platforms for advice. On Blind, an anonymous workplace community, a user posted on Monday that they are “one of those unlucky souls” that had a December H-1B renewal appointment delayed for three months.
“im literally stuck in india now,” the user posted. “im on unpaid leave, been living off savings for weeks and now i gotta stretch it till march somehow.”
On a Facebook group devoted to H-1B issues, a person identifying themselves as a physician posted that their December visa appointment had been pushed to March and wondered if it was worth appealing to U.S. senators.
“I have dozens of patients scheduled already,” the person wrote. “Is there anyone in the same situation as me?”
Kuck, the attorney in Atlanta, said the delays may be justified as an operational necessity, but the driving force is partisan politics. “Social media is the excuse,” he said. “But the reason is the extraordinary rise in attacks on the H-1B program, and Indian nationals in particular.”
Since Trump returned to office, Neumann has advised her clients to avoid foreign travel given the uncertainty surrounding the H-1B program. After the spate of canceled appointments, she said, a new worry has emerged.
If H-1B holders are outside the country when their visa expires, she said, their company cannot file for an extension and will likely have to start the visa application from scratch — and risk incurring the new $100,000 fee.
“No company is paying that,” she said.
The post H-1B workers flew to India to renew U.S. visas. Now they’re stuck. appeared first on Washington Post.
