Amazon has introduced a temporary remote work policy for employees stranded in India due to H-1B visa delays, but the company’s latest memo makes clear that these workers cannot actually perform most of their job functions.US investor and Ed-Tech chairman Hany Girgis weighed in on the situation on X, saying Amazon “found a workaround for H-1B visa delays. But he claimed that the idea doesn’t actually let people work.The memo outlines strict restrictions: employees cannot code, test, troubleshoot, make strategic decisions, interact with customers, negotiate contracts, or access Amazon buildings. All final approvals and decisions must take place outside India. In short, employees can remain on payroll but cannot perform the work itself because the job must legally stay in the United States.The memo was posted on Amazon’s internal HR portal on December 17, and it allows affected employees in India as of December 13, 2025, to work remotely until March 2, 2026. Normally, Amazon requires employees to work five days a week in the office, but this is a temporary exception.The policy comes amid other bigger challenges of H-1B visa delays, which have been worsened by additional screening requirements, including social media, digital footprint checks made compulsory under the Trump administration. Many consulates and embassies have postponed appointments by several months, leaving some employees unable to enter US. Companies including Google, Apple, and Microsoft have issued travel warnings to prevent employees from getting stranded abroad.For employees in technical roles, the restrictions severely limit their work, as most of their tasks involve coding, testing and deploying according to the Business Insider. Amazon is among the largest users of H-1B visas, with nearly 14,800 certified applications in the 2024 fiscal year, including 23 for Whole Foods.Girgis even asked why is US not still going ‘America First’ by hiring native Americans: “If the work must stay here, why doesn’t the hiring?”His comments come as MAGA bigwigs have urged the GOP government to permanently ban H1-Bs as they claim the programme unfairly steals jobs and opportunities from domestic American workers and gives them to foreign employees.
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