60 days or leave: Indians with H-1B visa struggling to survive after layoffs

For thousands of Indian tech workers in the US, the past few months have turned into a race against time. One layoff email can suddenly put an entire life at risk — jobs, homes, children's schooling, and even the right to stay in the country. With companies like Meta, Amazon and Oracle cutting jobs, many Indians on H-1B visas are now struggling to survive under a strict 60-day deadline imposed by US immigration rules, as suggested by a fresh report from Economic Times. Under the H-1B system, foreign workers who lose their jobs get only 60 days to find another employer willing to sponsor them. If they fail, they are expected to leave the US. For many Indians who have spent years building their lives there, the pressure is becoming overwhelming. Read Full Story To buy more time, several laid-off workers are now reportedly trying to switch temporarily to B-2 visitor visas, which can allow them to remain in the US for up to six months. But immigration experts say even that route is becoming increasingly difficult under the current immigration environment in the US. According to immigration experts, authorities are now demanding extra paperwork and issuing more visa denials for laid-off H-1B workers trying to move to B-2 status. While the process is still legal, approvals are reportedly becoming harder to secure. “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. He said the scale of cases his team is handling now is far beyond anything seen earlier in his career. Other immigration experts also told ET that requests for additional evidence and rejections have increased sharply in recent months. The crisis has grown alongside massive layoffs across the tech sector. According to Layoffs.fyi, more than 110,000 employees have lost jobs across 144 tech companies in 2026 so far. Immigration experts estimate that thousands of them could be H-1B workers, many of whom are Indians. Indians remain the biggest beneficiaries of the H-1B visa program. 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. But that heavy dependence on the program is now turning into a major vulnerability. Many Indians now exploring Canada and Europe as backup options For many Indian professionals, the layoffs are not just about losing a salary. Several have spent close to a decade in the US while waiting for green cards stuck in long backlogs. Many have children born in America, ongoing home loans and families fully settled there. Boundless Immigration CEO Xiao Wang suggested that the emotional impact has been intense, with many workers feeling abandoned after years of contributing to the US tech industry. “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 ET that many workers are now seriously calculating whether staying in the US still makes sense, especially as AI changes hiring across the tech industry. Apart from switching to B-2 visas, workers are also exploring other immigration routes, including F-1 student visas, O-1 visas for individuals with extraordinary abilities and L-1 visas for company transfers. Some are also considering moving to Canada through programs like Express Entry and the Global Talent Stream. The latest wave of concern comes from Meta, which has started another round of layoffs globally this week as part of its AI-focused restructuring plans. According to reports, employees in Singapore began receiving layoff emails as early as 4AM local time on Wednesday, with workers in the US and Europe also expected to be impacted. The exact number of employees being cut is still unclear, and there is currently no confirmation on how many Indians may have been affected. In an internal memo reviewed by Bloomberg, Meta’s Head of People Janelle Gale said the company wants "flatter" teams that can move faster with more ownership. Ahead of the layoffs, employees were reportedly encouraged to work from home while the restructuring process unfolded. At the same time, Meta has reassigned nearly 7,000 employees to AI-focused teams working on products and AI agents. The cuts are expected to mainly impact engineering and product divisions as CEO Mark Zuckerberg pushes AI to the centre of the company’s future plans. Meta is reportedly expected to spend more than $100 billion on AI-related investments this year. While LinkedIn has not yet seen a flood of public posts from affected Meta employees searching for jobs, anxiety among H-1B workers is clearly growing. You can stay tuned to India Today Tech for all the up