One Redditor, who holds an H-1B visa, claimed her passport was stamped “cancelled and withdrawn” at pre-clearance in Abu Dhabi while she returned to the US in January, with her husband.
Explaining her case, she said she traveled to India in November to celebrate her daughter’s first birthday and did not experience an H-1B stamp delay because their appointments were before December 15, 2025 — before the visa chaos began. The Redditor said her husband and she got their visa stamped on December 12 before dates began to be rescheduled en masse. Their ticket to the US was in January, and when they reached pre-clearance in Abu Dhabi, her case was flagged.
Her husband was acquitted without any problem. The woman recounted the questions she was asked during pre-clearance and the possible reason she was not allowed to travel to the United States. The woman was asked how long she had been in India and whether she was working from India or not. The Redditor said she was in India for two months and it was a mix of work and vacation. She was on paid leave but worked part time.She was sent for a secondary examination, where she was asked to provide proof that work from India was mentioned on her employment status application, which was not there.
The woman was told that she had “overstayed” in India, and that receiving wages while working from India for a US company was against US law.
“They canceled my visa and stamped “cancelled and withdrawn” on my passport. I was told that I would need to go to get my visa stamped again. However, there are currently no visa appointments available,” The woman wrote. “My company’s immigration lawyer says there is no rule prohibiting remote work from India while working for a US company, and he advised me to go for the stamp again.
But with no places available, I’m very nervous and unsure of what to do next,” The woman wrote asking for advice. Hundreds of H-1B workers are stranded in India after the State Department began screening social media as far back as December 2025, significantly rescheduling visa appointments. Those who had appointments in December were rescheduled to April or May 2026. After that, all dates were disrupted, and now there is no date for visa stamping at consular offices in 2026. While some companies have allowed H-1B Indians to work remotely from India as long as they are stuck in their home country, the legal part of it remains a gray area for most companies and employees.