Laid-Off Tech Workers With Visas Face Deadline but Job Openings Remain

As recruiters fan out to try to grab the best workers Meta Platforms, Twitter, Amazon and other tech firms are laying off, one group of employees stands out as the easiest to hire: those on special visas who need to leave the U.S. if they don’t find another job in a few weeks.

Tech companies for years have relied on people from overseas to fill key technical roles. Now that the industry is retrenching, noncitizens living in the U.S. on temporary visas are most vulnerable to layoffs. Meta Platforms, which laid off 13% of its workforce last week, was the sixth-largest sponsor of H-1B temporary work visas in fiscal year 2021, according to MyVisaJobs.com. Amazon, which is reportedly planning to cut 3% of its corporate and tech workforce, was the second-biggest sponsor.