Not only in India, US embassy in London denying visas to executives citing ‘minor offences’ of 1970s

Immigration lawyers in London are turning away clients with any criminal history as they know the US embassy in London will reject these visas no matter what positions these visa seekers hold or their purpose of visit to the US. Financial Times reported that the US embassy in London is denying top-level business executives from travelling to the US. And they are citing minor criminal offences that might have involved law enforcement, but no conviction. Some cases that the embassy is citing date back as far as the 1970s, for which the visa seeker might have got a police warning. Lawyers claim that these offences include past cannabis use, bar fights and driving under the influence but they were allowed entry to the Us previously despite those apparent crime records existing for a long time now. The FT report comes at a time when thousands of H-1B visa holders are stranded in India due to a policy quagmire with no end in sight. The US State Department started social media vetting for H-1B visa holders on December 15, 2025. As this would be a time-consuming process, the consular offices in India rescheduled visa appointments to reduce the number of appointments per day, resulting in massive chaos. Those who had their interviews scheduled in December got their new dates in and around April, May, June 2026. And since they can’t enter the US without a fresh stamping, they got stuck in India for at least six months.The issue is not Indian-specific, as the new visa policies came into effect across the world. Since India contributes a huge amount of H-1Bs, India became the worst hit. In London, travel and business visas are also being rejected, the FT report said. London is the largest visa post for the US in Europe. In 2024, the embassy issued more than 150,000 non-immigrant visas.

No specific reason given

Lawyers said that these visas are being denied under the 214(b) rule where the embassy states that the applicant did not sufficiently demonstrate that they qualify to visit the US.“In our experience, anybody that has a criminal irregularity — no matter how minor — is unlikely to obtain a visitor visa, and in some cases even a work visa, from London right now,” said Christi Jackson, head of the US practice at Laura Devine Immigration in London. “We are telling clients with existing visas that they should guard them with their lives.”Reacting to the London situation, the US Department of State said: “The Trump administration is upholding the highest standards of national security and public safety through the visa process . . . [the US] will not tolerate foreign visitors violating our laws.”