Visa roadblocks

The latest move by Washington to tighten screening for H-1B visa applicants marks a sharp turn in the way the United States is redefining its anxieties about immigration, technology, and free expression.

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What was once a visa category judged largely on skills and employer demand is now being pulled into America’s domestic culture wars, with foreign workers unexpectedly positioned at the centre of a debate that was never really about them.

The recently issued directive instructing consular officers to examine applicants’ résumés and online profiles for any association with content moderation, misinformation control, fact-checking or online safety is more than a bureaucratic change.

It is an ideological filter dressed as a security measure. By framing such work as potential “censorship,” the administration is blurring the line between legitimate enforcement of platform rules and political suppression. For thousands of Indian tech workers, many of whom occupy precisely these roles in social media, fintech and digital compliance, the implications are immediate and unsettling.