Google and Apple have circulated rare ‘do-not-travel’ advisories to hundreds of UK-based employees, warning that anyone who leaves the country for the holidays could be stranded abroad until at least June 2026. The internal memos, leaked and reported on 28 December, cite six-to-twelve-month backlogs for H-1B, L-1, F-1 and J-1 stamping appointments at the US Embassy in London.
The bottleneck follows a series of US executive orders that expanded social-media vetting and removed automatic visa-revalidation options. Engineers report that the next available H-1B slot is 10 months away, while intracompany transferees face similar delays. With Automatic Visa Revalidation no longer honoured if a new stamp is requested, employees risk being locked out of the US and, by extension, key client projects.
![UK Tech Giants Tell Staff to Stay Put as US Visa-Stamp Wait Times Hit Mid-2026]()
For those scrambling to secure scarce consular appointments, visa-processing specialists such as VisaHQ can help by scanning multiple embassies for earlier slots, coordinating document preparation and flagging policy changes in real time; more information is available at https://www.visahq.com/united-kingdom/.
In response, UK mobility managers are cancelling non-essential US trips, shifting meetings online and re-routing project work to Canada and Ireland, which offer faster permitting pathways. Advisers are also reminding staff not to surrender their I-94 forms if they do travel, and to consult immigration counsel before booking flights.
The episode underscores a growing trend: consular capacity, rather than domestic labour rules, is now the critical chokepoint for transatlantic mobility. Employers should build longer lead-times into US assignments, pre-book stamping slots where possible and explore remote-first staffing models until the backlog eases.
The bottleneck follows a series of US executive orders that expanded social-media vetting and removed automatic visa-revalidation options. Engineers report that the next available H-1B slot is 10 months away, while intracompany transferees face similar delays. With Automatic Visa Revalidation no longer honoured if a new stamp is requested, employees risk being locked out of the US and, by extension, key client projects.
For those scrambling to secure scarce consular appointments, visa-processing specialists such as VisaHQ can help by scanning multiple embassies for earlier slots, coordinating document preparation and flagging policy changes in real time; more information is available at https://www.visahq.com/united-kingdom/.
In response, UK mobility managers are cancelling non-essential US trips, shifting meetings online and re-routing project work to Canada and Ireland, which offer faster permitting pathways. Advisers are also reminding staff not to surrender their I-94 forms if they do travel, and to consult immigration counsel before booking flights.
The episode underscores a growing trend: consular capacity, rather than domestic labour rules, is now the critical chokepoint for transatlantic mobility. Employers should build longer lead-times into US assignments, pre-book stamping slots where possible and explore remote-first staffing models until the backlog eases.
