H1B Visa Stamping
Experience H1B stamping
I booked my slot way back for December 15th 2025 and they rescheduled my slot (while I was in the US) to April 24th 2026 (biometric) and April 30th 2026 (Interview). They also moved my interview date on April 30th from 11:00 AM to 8:00AM.
Initially I have only mentioned 1 instagram ID and that too I mentioned username only. After much deliberation I figured it is safe to just mention all the social media accounts and their urls. So I filled a new DS-160 and submitted that one. Took both the DS-160’s for my biometric appointment.
Biometric - Chennai April 24th:
Reached a bit early and they let me in. Pretty straightforward. They did all the checks on the first level.. looked at both of my DS-160’s and they did their thing and then asked me to only use the new DS-160 (with updated social media links) from here on.
Interview - Hyderabad April 30th:
Reached a bit early here too and frankly I got scalped for the lockers in front of the embassy and then I went to take a print out of the preponed (timing from 11:00 AM to 8:00 AM) slot email. Then went inside the embassy. Security check was quick and they seem to be very picky about unopened envelopes. So if you have any. Make sure you open them and then go in. Waited for my turn and then
Me: Morning
VO: No response
VO: Can I have your I797?
Me: Gave him
VO: In 2022 who filed your H1B?
Me: Answered
VO: Who are you currently working for?
Me: Answered
VO: How much do you make?
Me: Answered
VO: Is this a contract role? What is the end client?
Me: Nope. Fulltime and I work on a product for the company.. VO cut me off
VO: Do you have any threat to you in India?
Me: Now everyone expects this question back then this was new to me. I was a bit flustered. Immediately said NO
VO: Do you have any threat to you in the US?
Me: NO
VO: Do you have any issues coming back to India?
Me: No issues
VO: I need your fingerprints
VO: Your visa is temporarily refused for social media vetting, send me your social media profile links to the email address in the 221(g) document and handed me a document.
At that time I did not carefully look and my attention was only at the email. But they also checked the administrative processing checkbox (which later freaked me out honestly). Sent the email on the same day and got back a standard response and that response had a direction that said “Add your passport number in the subject of the email” which I did not.
Absolute crickets from then on. No change in the status or last updated date.
On May 6th: I sent another email to the same email address with the passport number in the subject of the email.
On May 11th: I sent an email to hydadmin@state.gov, support-india@usvisascheduling.com requesting a status update on my case (DM me if you want the content of the email)
On May 11th: Status changed from Refused to Approved.
On May 12th: Status changed from Approved to Issued.
May 14th: Received my passport.