Amazon layoff: Indians in US, Canada living on work visa in troubled waters

Several H1-B visa holders have been facing troubles post getting laid off from big tech companies like Twitter and Meta. Although there is no official comment on how many employees have been laid-off, reports citing people familiar with the proceedings have informed that the company is set to let go of at least 10,000 employees.

Many employees who hold H1-B visa in United states and employees in Canada have requested their LinkedIn connections to help them look for jobs or let them know of any job opportunities.

The H-1B is a visa in the United States under the Immigration and Nationality Act, section 101 that allows US employers to temporarily employ foreign workers in specialty occupations.

Unlike Meta who laid-off around 13% or 11,000 of their workforce and have announced immigration help for all foreign nationals who they had employed, Amazon has only kept it a hush-hush affair with handing over pink-slips to their employees, including foreign nationals.

Here are some of the narratives

Raj, Kansagra, a Sofware Development Engineer at Amazon, has said that he has been laid off from Amazon after working there for 6 years. He said he is actively looking for his next opportunity and that ‘time is of the essence to find something new’ since he is on work visa at US. “We have seen Alexa grow from its early days and it’s been an incredible journey. I’m proud of what we built together.” Kansagra said. 

Another Indian who is based in US vide the H1-B visa said that she is ‘still trying to navigate through this, while constrained by the timeline of being on a #visa.’ Another software development engineer at Amazon, Parate was impacted by the mass layoff at Amazon.

The trouble of getting laid off while on a visa was not limited to H1-B visa or work visa holders. Indian employees who were on student visa and were working with Amazon have also found themselves in troubled waters.

Dixitha Kasturi who had shared on her LinkedIn profile just 10 months ago that she had bagged a job with amazon as an SDE in their US office has said that ‘as an individual on Student Visa( OPT) I am time bound as well.’.

Another Software Development executive who was working with Amazon and was based out of Canada has also been impacted by the massive lay-offs. Robin Badsara wrote on his LinkedIn post, ‘I was impacted by the Amazon layoff today. I was part of Alexa development tech Team.”. He further added, “I am currently in Canada and available for work. If your organization has openings for sources or recruiters please let me know or direct me to the right one”.