Facebook's parent company Meta sacked 11,000 employees last month, in its first-ever mass layoffs. The layoffs created a particularly tricky situation for immigrant workers on H-1B visas, leaving them scrambling to find new jobs to continue living the US.
Among those sacked by Meta was Surbhi Gupta, who has been in the US since 2009, the BBC reported. An engineer by profession, she has also appeared on the popular Netflix show Indian Matchmaking. In 2018, she won a pageant titled "Miss Bharat-California".
Gupta told the BBC she received an early morning mail about the layoffs.
"I couldn't access my computer, nor the office gym," she said. "It felt like a break-up."
Being let go was a shock since she had been doing well at work, said Gupta, who has worked for over 15 years to build a life in the US.
Her search for a new role will not be easy since its holiday season and many companies will slow down hiring.
Most Indian nations work in the US on H-1B and LI visas.
"If they are laid off, they have 60 days from the cessation of employment, to either transfer their visa to a new company, change their status or leave the United States,” Sophie Alcorn, the CEO of California-based Alcorn Immigration Law, told Moneycontrol.
Read: Laid-off Indian techies on H-1B visas race against time to find new jobs
"Most of the international people who need immigration sponsorship in a future role are on H-1B, they have not advanced through the Green Card process," she added.
Big Tech is witnessing a slump , which has led to thousands of jobs being cut across countries.
Twitter, soon after being taken over by Elon Musk, fired roughly half of its workforce of 7,500.
Then came the 11,000 job cuts at Meta, which has poured billions of dollars into its metaverse ambitions.
"I want to take accountability for these decisions and for how we got here," CEO Mark Zuckerberg told his staff after the layoffs were announced. "I know this is tough for everyone, and I'm especially sorry to those impacted."
Amazon has also fired workers across several departments, impacting many Indian workers.
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