Travelers and employers across the Middle East are bracing for a new wave of delays and added costs for journeys to the United States, as Washington rolls out stricter H‑1B visa interview rules and an expanded public charge fee regime that will touch almost every major U.S. consular post in the region.

From Saudi Arabia and Jordan to the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Oman, Kuwait, Iran and beyond, the changes are expected to prolong already stretched appointment queues, intensify scrutiny of work and family ties, and raise the price of even routine applications.

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New H‑1B Scrutiny Collides With Existing Appointment Backlogs

The H‑1B category, long a critical pathway for Middle Eastern professionals heading to the U.S. technology, health care and higher‑education sectors, is now at the center of a policy shift that effectively tightens interview requirements and limits the use of waivers. Consular sections that had been quietly relying on interview waivers and streamlined renewals to chip away at pandemic‑era backlogs are being instructed to conduct more in‑person assessments of work history, employer legitimacy and ties to home countries.

This change comes as bases lines for interview waits remain elevated in several posts. Recent State Department data compiled by independent mobility trackers show petition‑based categories such as H‑1B facing weeks to months of lead time at some embassies and consulates, even before the stricter rules take hold. While wait times can shift quickly with staffing and demand, the broader trend since 2023 has been stubborn congestion across high‑demand markets in Asia and the Gulf.

For H‑1B applicants across Saudi Arabia, Jordan, the UAE, Qatar, Oman and Kuwait, the practical effect is that even well‑prepared cases may be pushed further into the calendar year. Companies that used to assume a matter of weeks between petition approval and visa issuance are now being warned by relocation specialists to build in multi‑month buffers and to expect more requests for documentation at the consular stage.

Saudi Arabia, Jordan and Gulf Posts Brace for Knock‑On Effects

In Saudi Arabia, where consulates in Riyadh, Jeddah and Dhahran have been working to stabilize appointment supply, travelers have recently benefited from comparatively modest published waits for many categories. Data for late 2025 showed petition‑based workers in some Saudi posts able to secure appointments in days rather than months, a marked improvement on the worst of the post‑pandemic period.

The tightening of H‑1B interview policy, however, risks eroding some of that progress. Consular sections that had allocated slots to students, business travelers and visiting relatives on the assumption that a significant share of work‑visa renewals would be handled via waivers may now need to divert capacity back toward petition‑based in‑person interviews. That rebalancing is likely to be felt first by business travelers and tourists, whose B‑1/B‑2 wait times typically move fastest when staffing or policy shock hits.

Jordan, which handles U.S. visa traffic not only from Amman but also from a wider catchment of regional nationals, faces a similar squeeze. Migrant‑worker flows, family links to the United States and a steady stream of academic and medical travelers have kept demand high. Local immigration lawyers say they are already fielding calls from H‑1B beneficiaries told by U.S. employers to delay resigning from regional roles until interview dates are firmly in hand.

UAE and Qatar Highlight Regional Disparities in Wait Times

The United Arab Emirates has emerged as a vivid illustration of just how uneven U.S. visa access can be, even within a single country. Recent figures gathered from State Department reporting show Abu Dhabi with one of the world’s longest average waits for tourist and business visa interviews, stretching past a year in some snapshots, as the embassy juggles both immigrant and non‑immigrant caseloads for multiple regional posts.

Dubai, by contrast, has typically posted shorter queues, though still running into many months for popular categories during 2024 and 2025. Consular analysts attribute the gap to caseload composition, staffing and the sheer volume of UAE‑based expatriates who route their visa renewals through Dubai. The introduction of stricter H‑1B interview rules could push more petition‑based traffic toward whichever UAE post appears most accessible at a given moment, potentially shifting the bottleneck from one city to another.

Qatar’s capital Doha, which has in recent months offered comparatively moderate waits for both petition‑based workers and tourists, may also feel secondary pressure. Fresh data for January 2026 shows Doha handling H‑class petition‑based interviews within days to a few weeks in many cases, notable in a region where some neighbors measure waits in months. Mobility consultants warn, however, that as multinational employers look for any post with faster availability, demand can quickly surge and erode those advantages.

Iranian Travelers Face Double Hit From Security and Public Charge Rules

For Iranian nationals, the tightening of H‑1B and public charge policies comes on top of an already challenging landscape shaped by broad travel restrictions, limited consular presence and heightened security screening. Iranians typically apply for U.S. visas in third countries such as Turkey, Armenia, the UAE or Oman, where consular posts must dedicate significant time to detailed background checks and administrative processing.

The expanded reliance on public charge assessments means Iranian family‑based and employment‑based applicants will face even deeper scrutiny of financial resources, sponsors’ income and their own prospects in the U.S. labor market. Although the public charge standard primarily applies to immigrant visas and green‑card cases, officials have signaled that similar questions about self‑sufficiency will increasingly inform non‑immigrant adjudications, including H‑1B and other temporary worker categories.

The result is a double hit for Iranian applicants and their employers. Not only do they contend with longer security‑related processing, but they must also compile more extensive financial records and be prepared for further interviews if consular officers have doubts about income or support. Travel agents in the region report that some families are postponing trips to visit relatives in the United States while they monitor the evolving standards.

Public Charge Fees and Integrity Surcharges Add New Costs

Layered onto the interview and screening changes is a fee overhaul tied to the public charge and compliance agenda. A new integrity fee and related surcharges, set to take effect for most non‑immigrant visa categories in fiscal year 2026, are expected to substantially increase the cost of applying for U.S. visas from the Middle East. Analysts estimate that for some categories, total charges could nearly triple once base fees and surcharges are fully implemented.

For H‑1B candidates in Saudi Arabia, the Gulf and neighboring countries, these fees come on top of existing petition, anti‑fraud and premium‑processing charges typically borne in part by U.S. employers. While corporations may absorb much of the added cost for highly skilled staff, smaller companies and individual contractors could find the new price tag prohibitive, especially when coupled with airfare, lodging and the possibility of repeat travel for follow‑up interviews or administrative processing.

Applicants across the region are being advised to budget not only for the published consular fees but also for medical exams, document translations, travel insurance and potential rescheduling penalties. Travel‑risk insurers note that the financial calculus for short‑term business trips is shifting: in some scenarios, it may be cheaper to move meetings to third‑country hubs rather than navigate the tighter and costlier U.S. visa process.

Impact on Employers, Universities and the Regional Travel Economy

The ripple effects of these policy moves extend well beyond individual travelers. Large U.S. and multinational companies that rely on talent pipelines from Saudi Arabia, Jordan, the UAE, Qatar, Oman, Kuwait and Iran face new uncertainty in workforce planning. Human‑resources teams accustomed to mapping H‑1B start dates around a predictable consular cycle now confront volatile appointment calendars and a higher risk of last‑minute deferrals.

Universities in the United States, many of which recruit graduate students and researchers from across the Middle East who later transition into H‑1B roles, are rethinking timelines for admissions and onboarding. Delays in securing initial study visas or work authorization can cascade into missed semesters, deferred research projects and lost grant funding. Several institutions have begun flagging the risk in their international recruitment materials, encouraging early application and contingency planning.

The travel and tourism industries in the region may also see a drag on outbound U.S. travel. Travel agencies in Riyadh, Dubai and Doha report a growing share of clients looking at alternatives such as Europe or East Asia for conferences, medical treatment and leisure, citing both the uncertainty of securing a timely U.S. interview and the rising cost of visa processing. Airlines that have invested heavily in transatlantic routes linking Gulf hubs with major U.S. cities will be watching booking trends closely through 2026.

Strategies Emerging Travelers Are Using to Navigate the New Landscape

Despite the headwinds, Middle Eastern travelers and employers are already experimenting with tactics to mitigate the impact of the new rules. One common strategy is to file H‑1B petitions and begin visa planning several months earlier than in previous years, giving applicants a wider window to secure interviews and respond to document requests. Some multinational firms are staging employees in regional hubs with relatively shorter wait times, then routing them to the U.S. once visas are in hand.

Legal practitioners across Saudi Arabia, Jordan, the Gulf and key Iranian diaspora centers are urging clients to assemble more comprehensive documentation packages from the outset. For H‑1B applicants, that means detailed contracts, proof of specialized skills, employer tax filings and evidence of strong ties to the region. For those subject to public charge analysis, it includes bank statements, property records and affidavits of support designed to anticipate consular concerns.

Travelers are also being encouraged to monitor appointment systems daily, as additional slots are often added without advance notice and cancellations can briefly free up earlier dates. In some posts, securing an initial appointment far in the future and then repeatedly rescheduling when new slots appear has become a de facto norm, albeit one that requires persistence and digital literacy that not all applicants possess.

Prolonged Uncertainty as Policy Settles and Staffing Lags

While the broad contours of the stricter H‑1B interview standards and public charge fee policies are now clearer, their full impact in the Middle East will take months to play out. U.S. officials have signaled that additional consular staff will be deployed to high‑demand posts over the course of 2026, but hiring, training and security clearances for new officers are lengthy processes. Until those reinforcements arrive, posts in Saudi Arabia, Jordan, the UAE, Qatar, Oman, Kuwait and key third‑country locations used by Iranian applicants must make do with existing teams.

For now, the message from travel experts is one of cautious realism. Applicants are urged to apply as early as possible, prepare for more exhaustive interviews and budgeting, and remain flexible on travel dates. Employers are being told to diversify hiring strategies, consider remote or hybrid roles when H‑1B timelines slip, and to build visa risk into project planning. Families with long‑planned trips to visit relatives in the United States are weighing whether to proceed or to pivot to destinations where entry is more predictable.

What seems certain is that the era of relatively streamlined, moderately priced U.S. visa access for many Middle Eastern travelers is giving way to a period marked by longer queues, higher costs and greater uncertainty. For a region whose economic and educational links to the United States have deepened over decades, the coming year will test the resilience of those ties and the ability of travelers to adapt to a more demanding gatekeeping regime.