After laying off over 11,000 employees, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg acknowledging announced that employees on work visas such as H-1Bs will get assistance to meet their family needs. Mark in his statement said, "this is especially difficult if you're here on a visa" as US-based technology companies hire a large amount of H-1B workers, the majority of whom come from countries such as India.
The H-1B visa is a non-immigrant visa that allows US companies to employ foreign workers in speciality occupations that require theoretical or technical expertise. Technology companies depend on it to hire tens of thousands of employees each year from countries like India and China.
Acknowledging that "there is no good way to do a layoff", Zuckerberg said the company hopes to get all the relevant information to those impacted as quickly as possible and then do whatever it can to support them through this.
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Among the measures being put in place by the company in the US to help those impacted by the layoffs is "immigration support".
"I know this is especially difficult if you're here on a visa. There's a notice period before termination and some visa grace periods, which means everyone will have time to make plans and work through their immigration status. We have dedicated immigration specialists to help guide you based on what you and your family need," he said.
Meanwhile, the company will be paying for all remaining PTO (Paid Time Off) time and cover the cost of healthcare for people and their families for six months.
"We'll provide three months of career support with an external vendor, including early access to unpublished job leads," he said.
Let us tell you that, H-1B visa holders can stay and work in the US for a period of three years, extended by another three years.
They are then required to leave the country unless their employee sponsors them for permanent residency, known as the Green Card, the backlog for which runs into decades. If H-1B visa holders lose their jobs, they only have a "grace period" of 60 days to find an employee willing to sponsor their H-1B, failing which they will be required to leave the US.
Zuckerberg said in the new environment, the company needs to become more capital efficient.
"We've shifted more of our resources onto a smaller number of high-priority growth areas - like our AI (Artificial Intelligence) discovery engine, our ads and business platforms, and our long-term vision for the metaverse.
"We've cut costs across our business, including scaling back budgets, reducing perks, and shrinking our real estate footprint. We're restructuring teams to increase our efficiency. But these measures alone won't bring our expenses in line with our revenue growth, so I've also made the hard decision to let people go," he said.