A single layoff email can unravel years of carefully built life in America. For Indian tech workers on H-1B visas, losing a job triggers an immediate countdown, 60 days to find a new employer willing to sponsor them, or face the prospect of leaving the country. With companies including Meta, Amazon, and Oracle cutting headcount, that clock is now ticking for thousands.

The 60-day trap

The H-1B programme gives laid-off foreign workers a narrow window to secure new sponsorship. If they miss that deadline, their legal basis for staying in the US is bound to disappearTo buy more time, many workers are attempting to switch to B-2 visitor visas, which can extend their stay by up to six months. But immigration experts say even that option is becoming harder to exercise.

"We are seeing a significant spike in RFEs and Notices of Intent to Deny on B-1/B-2 change-of-status applications filed by laid-off H-1B workers," said US-based immigration attorney Rajiv Khanna, noting that the volume of such cases his team is handling is unlike anything he has seen before. Other immigration experts told the Economic Times that requests for additional evidence and outright rejections have both climbed sharply in recent months.

The scale of the problem

The pressure is unfolding amid sweeping job cuts. More than 110,000 employees have lost jobs across 144 tech companies in 2026 so far, according to Layoffs.fyi. Immigration experts estimate that a significant portion of those affected are H-1B holders, and a large share of those are Indian.

Indians are the H-1B programme's biggest users by a wide margin. A 2026 report from the US Citizenship and Immigration Services and the Department of Homeland Security showed that Indians accounted for 283,772 of the 406,348 approved H-1B petitions in FY25. That dominance, once a measure of success, is now a measure of exposure.

More than a job loss

For many of those affected, a layoff is not simply a financial setback. Several have spent close to a decade in the US waiting for green cards, stuck in backlogs that stretch for decades. Many have children born in America, active home loans, and families that have put down deep roots.

Boundless Immigration CEO Xiao Wang described the emotional toll as severe. "Indian H-1B holders are taking it the hardest because their green card backlogs were already decades long; this is another door closing. We're hearing more people say they want to go home or move to Canada or Europe than at any point in the last decade," he said.

Immigration attorney Kevin J Andrews told the Economic Times that many workers are now seriously calculating whether remaining in the US still makes sense, particularly as AI continues to reshape hiring across the tech industry.

Where people are looking

Beyond the B-2 route, laid-off workers are exploring F-1 student visas, O-1 visas for those with extraordinary abilities, and L-1 visas for intra-company transfers. Canada is emerging as a serious alternative, with programmes like Express Entry and the Global Talent Stream drawing interest.

Meta adds to the pressure

The latest anxiety has been triggered by Meta, which launched a fresh round of global layoffs this week as part of an AI-focused restructuring. Employees in Singapore began receiving layoff notices as early as 4AM local time on Wednesday, with workers in the US and Europe also in the firing line. The exact numbers remain unclear.

Published on: May 22, 2026 9:05 AM IST