‘AI will have the biggest impact on Indians overseas’: How H-1B workers are struggling after layoffs at Meta and Amazon
For thousands of Indian tech workers in the United States, losing their jobs now means more than just unemployment. It could also trigger a 60-day countdown that could determine whether they can continue living in the country with their families.As artificial intelligence-driven restructuring sweeps Silicon Valley, layoffs at companies like Meta, Amazon and Oracle have left many Indian professionals on H-1B visas scrambling to find new jobs before their legal stay expires.Citing a viral post on X, American Bazaar recently showed that anxiety is spreading among Indian communities abroad. The post described the situation of an Indian engineer who had just been fired from Meta.“At 11pm Bangalore time, an Indian engineer at Meta got a layoff email. His wife was on an H-4 visa. His kid was in third grade in Seattle. He had eight months left on his Bellevue apartment lease. His H-1B clock had just started ticking — 60 days. Meta’s stock price rose on the news. Zucker said it was becoming more efficient. This is what the AI transformation is actually like for the 200,000 Indians overseas. The impact of AI on Indians overseas is highest.”The post attracted attention online as many users worried about how the mass layoffs would affect Indian families who have spent years building lives in the United States. For many families, the uncertainty extends far beyond employment. Workers are now juggling rent agreements, mortgages, children’s schools and immigration deadlines. Some laid-off professionals are trying to temporarily switch to B-2 visitor visas to stay in the United States and find another employer. The visa allows them to stay in the country for up to six months, but immigration lawyers say approval is becoming increasingly difficult.The pressure is mounting as layoffs spread across the tech industry. According to data from Layoffs.fyi, more than 110,000 employees at 144 technology companies will lose their jobs in 2026 alone. A large portion of those affected are Indian H-1B workers.A report by U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) and the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) showed that Indians accounted for 283,772 of the 406,348 H-1B petitions approved in fiscal year 2025, underscoring their dominant role in the U.S. technology industry.
