American Dream turns Nightmare: How Elon Musk’s mass layoffs at Twitter affect H-1B visa holders

The Elon Musk takeover of Twitter has been nothing short of chaos and disaster. From introducing sweeping changes of charging users $8 for their blue ticks to mass layoffs, Twitter has seen turbulent times since the billionaire completed his blockbuster buyout of the social networking platform.

Last Friday, the layoffs began and according to an AFP report, the marketing department was hit hard, two-thirds of the design department were let go, and maybe 75 per cent of managers had to bid adieu. Content moderation was somewhat spared, with a layoff rate of only 15 per cent, according to Yoel Roth, head of safety at the platform.

A full 24 hours later, Elon Musk reacted to the layoffs, saying that there was ‘unfortunately no choice’.

Regarding Twitter’s reduction in force, unfortunately there is no choice when the company is losing over $4M/day.

Everyone exited was offered 3 months of severance, which is 50% more than legally required.

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) November 4, 2022

The layoffs have become more complicated for H-1B visa holders, who have not only lost their jobs, but now also face concerns over their immigration status in the US.

Let’s take a closer look at how Twitter layoffs will affect these H-1B visa holders and what they can do to protect themselves from deportation.

H-1B workers at Twitter

First things first. The H-1B visa is a commonly used status by many tech firms in the United States to hire international employees. It is a non-immigrant work visa that allows American companies to employ foreign workers in speciality occupations that require theoretical or technical expertise.

Interestingly, Musk, who is now in control of Twitter, came to America as an international student and later obtained an H-1B visa so he could work in the United States.

According to a Forbes report, Twitter has approximately 625 to 670 employees in the H-1B status or about eight per cent of the company’s 7,500 employees. While there isn’t any official confirmation of how many of these employees were let go in the layoffs, the assumption is that a significant chunk were asked to leave.

The firing of these employees now leave their futures in the ‘land of opportunities’ uncertain. As one Twitter user, Shawn Wenzel, noted on the platform, “These folks have 60 days to either find another company to sponsor them or leave the US.”

In a long thread, he also explained that some of these visa holders had applied for a Green Card through Twitter’s sponsorship — a process that takes several years. “With a poof, those are all gone too”, he wrote.

With a massive wave of layoffs reportedly happening at Twitter today there is one particular group of workers who will be hugely impacted: foreign workers on work visas (H1B, L1, etc.). These folks have 60 days to either find another company to sponsor them or leave the US. 1/ pic.twitter.com/tx1jtqZfUb

— Shawn Wenzel (@shawnwenzel) November 4, 2022

Another Twitter user noted that while the normal period to find a job is 60 days considering December is mostly a holiday month “they actually have a shorter time span to find another company to sponsor their visa.”

Laid off while on H1B: U just have 30 days to find a new job. Next 30 days has a thanksgiving break. So really just 2 weeks to get an interview call, crush it & get them to file an H1B transfer.

People on H1B should start interviewing every time u even hear a layoff rumour. https://t.co/HWsuQyGAqp

— Gagan Singh (@urbanturbanguy) November 3, 2022

What should a laid off H-1B visa holder do

Those let go by Twitter, who possess an H-1B visa typically have 60 days grace period to file an H-1B through another employer. This means that they have only two months to look for a job or viewed as violating their immigration status.

According to immigration lawyer Robert Webber, if a person doesn’t have an H-1B transfer job offer lined up after about 45 days of being laid off, he/she should file an I-539 application to change status from H-1B to B-2 to “buy time” to transition out of the US. He noted that the person won’t have authorisation to work, which means you can support yourself and your family in the meantime.

India reacts to layoffs

Elon Musk’s firings of Twitter employees were also felt in India.The entire Twitter India’s communication team was sacked. Moreover, large number of employees were let go of in Twitter India's marketing and sales team.

Reacting to the mass firings, Union IT Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw criticised Musk’s decision, saying that they should have been given a “fair time for transition”.

“We condemn the way Twitter has sacked employees in India,” Vaishnaw was quoted as telling Business Standard first, adding that the employees “should have given the employees a fair time for transition”.

The layoffs at Twitter are gut-wrenching and it is left to be seen what awaits the laid-off employees, but we can only imagine their pain, as their ‘American Dream’ turns into an ‘American nightmare’.

With inputs from agencies

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