Washington Post: H-1B workers flew to India to renew U.S. visas. Now they’re stuck. December 19, 2025 By Pranshu Verma and Supriya Kumar An Indian man who lives in the Detroit suburbs and works as an engineer said he flew back to India in early December for a wedding and had consular appointments set up for Dec. 17 and 23 to renew his H-1B visa, which is now expired. He spoke to The Post on the condition of anonymity for fear of jeopardizing his immigration status. On Dec. 8, he got a series of emails from the State Department saying his consular appointment had been canceled and rescheduled for July 2 — more than six months away. “I was like ‘OK, What do I do?’” he recalled. The engineer has a wife in the United States on her own H-1B visa and a 5-year-old son. On Friday, he said, he was able to secure an expedited appointment after his company submitted documentation showing several of the projects he’s working on are ramping up next year. But he’s still apprehensive: “I’m hoping they honor it and don’t just bump it out further,” he said. Lawyers said such exemptions are rare.
It seems like Trump’s M.O. to create another crisis, forcing tech companies to pay expedited handling fees like this.
How much of those fees do you think will somehow find their way to Trump’s pocket? And as the person quoted says, what’s to keep the extortionists from delaying future appointments?
