New Delhi: India has raised concerns with the US over delays and disruptions faced by Indian nationals following changes to the H-1B visa review process, the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) said on Friday (December 26).Speaking at a weekly press briefing, MEA spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal said that the government has received numerous representations from Indian nationals facing problems with rescheduled visa appointments and has flagged these issues to US authorities both in New Delhi and Washington DC.“There are several people who have been stranded for an extended period of time because of scheduling or rescheduling issues of consular appointments, and these have also caused a lot of hardship to their family life, as also to the education of their children,” he said.The disruptions follow the US government’s December 15 expansion of “online presence review” protocols to all H-1B specialty occupation visa applicants and their H-4 dependents. The enhanced vetting, which requires visa seekers to make their social media profiles public, has caused confirmed appointments to be abruptly rescheduled – in some cases pushing interviews from December 2025 to as late as July 2026.Social media platforms and immigration forums have been flooded with reports from affected applicants. Some have described seven-month postponements, forcing them to cancel imminent travel plans and leaving families separated across continents. The financial burden has also mounted, with many losing substantial sums on non-refundable flight bookings.“While we do understand that visa-related issues pertain to the sovereign domain of any country, we have flagged these issues and the concerns of our nationals to the US side,” Jaiswal said. “We hope that these delays and these disruptions will be addressed.”The timing of the disruptions is significant, coming amid a broader overhaul of the H-1B programme by the Trump administration as part of an aggressive stance against immigration. Earlier this week, Vice President J.D. Vance defended the tighter H-1B restrictions at a gathering of US conservatives, linking immigration policy to Christian nationalism. “Why have we worked without the help of Congress to restrict H-1B visas? Because we believe it is wrong for companies to bypass American labour just to go for cheaper options in the third world,” Vance said on December 21.On December 23, the Department of Homeland Security announced that the existing random lottery system would be replaced with a weighted selection process favouring higher-paid applicants, effective February 27, 2026.The regulatory changes follow the September 2025 introduction of a $100,000 fee on new H-1B petitions, a dramatic increase from the typical $2,000 to $5,000. A federal court in Washington this week upheld that fee against a legal challenge, with US District Judge Beryl Howell ruling it fell within the president’s broad immigration powers.Indian professionals bear the brunt of these policy shifts. According to US Citizenship and Immigration Services data, Indian nationals account for over 70% of H-1B visas issued annually.The MEA spokesperson emphasised that India “remains actively engaged with the US side to address and minimise the disruptions that have been caused to our nationals”.Earlier this month, a US embassy spokesperson cited “resource availability” as the reason for the rescheduling, stating that authorities “will take the time necessary” to complete the enhanced screening process.Meanwhile, in response to a separate question on the fate of the much-anticipated bilateral trade agreement, Jaiswal simply noted it was still in the works. The MEA spokesperson said India and the United States remained in talks with a view to concluding a “fair, balanced and mutually beneficial” trade deal, adding that discussions between the two sides were continuing.For India, the trade negotiations have taken on added importance amid efforts to persuade Washington to roll back steep tariffs imposed on Indian exports. The United States has levied duties of up to 50% on certain Indian goods, with half linked to so-called reciprocal tariffs and the remainder tied to India’s continued purchases of Russian oil.