'Flagged these issues': India conveys concern to US over cancellation of H1B visa interviews

New Delhi: India on Friday said it flagged its concerns to the US over cancellation of pre-scheduled H1B visa interviews of large numbers of Indian applicants and that both sides are engaged on the issue.

The interviews of thousands of H-1B visa applicants slated from the middle of this month in India have been abruptly postponed by several months to scrutinise their social media posts and online profiles.

Some of the applicants, whose visa appointments were scheduled last week, received e-mails from US immigration authorities informing that their interviews are being pushed back as late as May next year.

The government of India has received several representations from Indian nationals who are facing problems with their rescheduling of their visa appointments, External Affairs Ministry spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal said at his weekly media briefing.

Visa-related issues pertain to the sovereign domain of any country, he said, adding: "we have flagged these issues and our concerns to the US side, both here in New Delhi and in Washington DC." Jaiswal said several Indians have been stranded for extended periods of time in India causing a lot of "hardships" to them and their families.

"The government of India remains actively engaged with the US side to minimise the disruptions caused to our nationals," he said.

The mass cancellation of scheduled interviews of the H-1B visa applicants in view of the enhanced vetting measures has resulted in significant delays in their return to the US.

The rescheduling of the interviews is for all applicants who were previously given appointments from December 15 onwards.

Most of them were already in India and are now unable to return to the US pending their new interview dates since they don't have a valid H1B visa to travel back to the US for their jobs.