Foreign workers laid off from Big Tech face a deadline: Find jobs ASAP or leave the country
When one data scientist started working at Meta, he felt like he had finally made it.
When one data scientist started working at Meta, he felt like he had finally made it. Under the umbrella of a tech giant, not only would he have job security, he thought, but visa security as well. Originally from China, he needed the sponsorship of an H-1B work visa to stay in the U.S.
A year went by in his new role and everything seemed to be going well. But last week, it all came crashing down when he got an email saying that he was one of 11,000 employees being laid off by Meta. Now, with Twitter also laying off thousands, he and many other former employees have 60 days after the date of their official termination to find another job to sponsor their visas, or they will have to leave the country and start the process anew, according to U.S. immigration law.
The uncertainty exposes the disarray at the heart of U.S. immigration policy for the tech industry, and these layoffs have the potential to turn tech-specialized immigrants off from coming to the U.S. for work, experts say.
“Layoffs do put extra pressure on visa holders because there’s only a limited amount of time for us to find new jobs,” the ex-employee told NBC News. “It’s tough.”
“Layoffs do put extra pressure on visa holders because there’s only a limited amount of time for us to find new jobs. It’s tough.”
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