State Dept expands social‑media vetting
The State Department is expanding social‑media vetting to more visa categories next week, adding groups like religious workers and fiancé(e)s to prior vetting of students and employment applicants. That expansion raises new screening considerations as even benign posts can be reinterpreted during adjudication. (news.bloomberglaw.com, timesofindia.indiatimes.com)
The State Department set an effective date of March 30, 2026 for the next phase of its “online presence review,” naming specific additional nonimmigrant visa classifications that will be included. (travel.state.gov) The agency’s notice identifies 14 additional NIV classifications — A-3, C-3 (if a domestic worker), G-5, H-3, H-4 dependents of H-3, K-1, K-2, K-3, Q, R-1, R-2, S, T, and U — as newly subject to the review. (travel.state.gov) The announcement instructs applicants for those listed categories (and for H‑1B, H‑4, F, M, and J visas already covered) to set all social-media profiles to “public” or “open” to facilitate consular review. (travel.state.gov) The H‑1B/H‑4 expansion that took effect on Dec. 15, 2025 preceded this step, and that rollout correlated with widespread rescheduling of consular interviews beginning in mid‑December. (news.bloomberglaw.com) Multiple U.S. consular posts — notably Chennai and Hyderabad — cancelled and rebooked thousands of H‑1B/H‑4 appointments after the prior social‑media rollout, pushing many appointment dates into March–June 2026. (visaverge.com) The State Department explicitly characterized every visa adjudication as a “national security decision,” while U.S. immigration law firms and consular monitoring bulletins have reported increases in administrative processing (including 221(g)) and multi‑month delays tied to expanded online‑presence checks. (travel.state.gov)
