A US State Department spokesperson recently said that there are no visa laws targeting India specifically, but rather all the new rules are being implemented globally.
Since India contributes the largest number of H-1B visa holders in the United States, any change in the H-1B visa rule affects India first. A social media screening implemented in December 2025 pushed back H-1B interview dates for months with thousands of H-1B visa holders remaining stuck in India as they went to their home countries to renew their visa stamp, but all dates were blocked for months.
Two major changes led to the huge backlog: first, the seal had to be done in the person’s country of origin; Secondly, all visa stamp renewals will be subject to social media screening.This issue has been raised through diplomatic channels as well.Recently, during a roundtable organized by the Foreign Press Center in New York, State Department spokesperson Tommy Piggott told news agency PTI that these visa rules have not been changed to target India but these are the global visa laws that are being implemented.“When it comes to visas… what we’ve had here for a long time going back to previous administrations is inconsistent application of visa law. That’s no longer the case. We are consistently applying visa law across the board. I think that will provide clarity,” Piggott said.“There are no visa laws targeting India. These are global visa laws that are clearly implemented, and clear instructions are applied across the board,” he said.
He added that when it comes to visa policy in general, “we will of course work with other countries to allow people into the country necessary for trade, investment and work, and there are many examples of this happening with different bilateral partners around the world.” “We are also clear, as in any country, that if you are going to create a job in the United States, we want to make sure that Americans have opportunities there, and that every country has a similar mindset,” he said, adding that Secretary of State Marco Rubio stressed that each country pursues its own national interests.“Of course, we will facilitate and allow the routes that people need to come in to facilitate investment, train workers, and make sure that visa policies are in place to allow that to happen. We are applying the laws consistently across the board. There are no visa laws that specifically target India.“We’re going to make sure that when we have visa policies in place, as we facilitate the entry of workers into the United States, we want to make sure, as any country does, that Americans in America, or call your country and their citizens, have that investment opportunity as well,” he said.
