Today, March 25th, 2026, the US Department of State announced it is expanding vetting and screening for an additional 14 visa types. This expansion of social media vetting will have a huge impact on processing times across consulates for all these visa types, including H1B, F1, and others, who are already part of this program.
In this article, we will review all the new visa types that are impacted by the announcement, and how it will have an impact on the H1B, F1, and others who are already part of this. We will look at actual numbers from past in terms of impacted applicants.
Background: More Vetting for H1B, H4, F, M & J Visa Applicants
Below is the high-level background of the additional vetting initiative by US Dept of State:
- US Visa – National Security Decision: The US Department of State stated in the past that every visa decision is a US national security decision, and all visa applicants must establish that they are eligible for a visa and engage in activities that are in line with their terms of admission to the US for studying.
- Social Media Profile Public, Vetting Process: As part of these additional vetting requirements, all the H1B, H4, F, M, and J Visa applicants were instructed to change their privacy settings of all of their social media profiles to be “public”. They will use the Social Media Profile details filled out on DS-160 application to do the additional vetting.
- Timeline:
- June 2025: The US Department of State resumed processing of F, M, and J Visa applicants and introduced additional vetting requirements for those visa applicants.
- December 2025: On December 3rd, 2025, the US Department of State released a press note indicating the expansion of screening and vetting for H1B and H4 Visa applicants
14 New Visa Types Added to Additional Vetting and Screening
Based on today’s press release by the US Department of State, below is the full list of 14 visa types that are added to the additional vetting and screening initiative by the US Department of State
| Visa Type | Description |
|---|---|
| A-3 | Domestic workers of diplomats(A-1/A-2 holder) |
| C-3 | Domestic worker of a foreign official in transit |
| G-5 | Domestic workers of intl. org staff(G-1 to G-4) |
| H-3 | Fiancé(e) of a U.S. citizen |
| H-4 | Dependents of H-3 |
| K-1 | Fiancé(e) of U.S. citizen |
| K-2 | Unmarried Children(under 21) of K-1 |
| K-3 | Spouse of U.S. citizen |
| Q | Cultural exchange Visitors |
| R-1 | Religious workers |
| R-2 | Dependents of R-1 |
| S | Informants (law enforcement) |
| T | Human trafficking victims |
| U | Crime victims assisting law enforcement |
What is changing for all the above Visa types?
- Starting from March 30th, 2026, the US Department of State will do additional vetting of all the above visa types applicants based on their online presence in social media.
- For doing this additional review, the US Department of State is asking all these 14 new visa types applicants to adjust the privacy settings on all of their social media profiles to “public” or “open”. This change is to ensure that all social media posts across their social media profiles are visible to everyone, and the US Department of State can do its additional vetting and screening.
What’s the Impact on H1B, H4, F1 & Other Visa Applicants?
When the US Department of State started additional social media vetting for H1B and H4 visa holders back in December 2025, they cancelled a lot of existing appointments and issued a lot of 221(g)s for Administrative Processing for more review.
Now, with the addition of another 14 visa types for the additional social media vetting, it can make it even harder for the Visa Officers to review and vet all these new visa applicants. Let’s look at the numbers to get a sense of the impact:
Below table shows the total number of visas issued by Visa type at various US Consulates globally during the Fiscal Year 2024:
| Visa Type | Description | FY2024 Issued* |
|---|---|---|
| K-1 | Fiancé(e) of US citizen | 47,579 |
| K-2 | Child of K-1 | 7,306 |
| R-1 | Religious worker | 5,186 |
| C-3 | Govt official/domestic worker in transit | 3,746 |
| R-2 | Dependent of R-1 | 2,709 |
| U (all) | Crime victim & family (U1–U5) | 1,342 |
| Q | Cultural exchange visitor | 1,781 |
| A-3 | Domestic worker of diplomat | 884 |
| H-3 | Trainee | 924 |
| T (all) | Trafficking victim & family (T1–T6) | 479 |
| G-5 | Domestic worker of intl org employee | 236 |
| K-3 | Spouse of US citizen (pending IV) | 3 |
| S (all) | Witness/informant & family | 0 |
| H-4 of H-3 | Dependent of H-3 (subset of total H-4) | N/A (no breakdown) |
| TOTAL | 72,175 |
Below table shows the total visas issued for the H, F, J and M Visa applicants during the FY 2024 globally across various US Consulates.
| Group | Visa Type | FY2024 Issued* |
|---|---|---|
| H visas | H-1B | 219,659 |
| H-4 | 139,874 | |
| H subtotal | 359,533 | |
| F visas | F-1 | 400,737 |
| F-2 | 24,055 | |
| F-3 | 0 | |
| F subtotal | 424,792 | |
| J visas | J-1 | 322,820 |
| J-2 | 32,512 | |
| J subtotal | 355,332 | |
| M visas | M-1 | 6,322 |
| M-2 | 169 | |
| M-3 | 0 | |
| M subtotal | 6,491 | |
| H+F+J+M TOTAL | 1,146,148 | |
| New categories (Mar 30, 2026) | 72,175 | |
| GRAND TOTAL under vetting | 1,218,323 |
*The above data is compiled from US Dept of State FY 2024 Reports
The new addition of 14 visa types adds about 72,175 new visa applicants, which is 6% more people to the current pool of Social Media vetting, but expands the visa types of applicants broadly.
Without going into details, if we just see that new 14 visa types are added, we usually expect to see a huge impact. But, it is relatively less number of applications that will be processed by the Visa Officers compared to H1B and F1. So, this may or may not have a huge impact on the overall processing times or 221(g) processing times of H1B, F1, and other visa types.
We may see marginally increased processing times due to the six percent addition of the visa applications. So, you may see slightly more delays in the overall processing times and 221(g) administrative processing times for H1B, F1, and Other visa types.
What do you think of the new annoucement? Share your thoughts in comments section below.
Reference: US Department of State Official Annoucement. Below is the screenshot of the actual annoucement.
