‘They exploit’: Amazon employee returns to India, shares harsh reality of H-1B visa abuse by Indian managers

A FORMER Amazon employee shared the harsh reality of H-1B visa abuse by Indian managers following the US government's fee hike on September 21. Commenting on the H-1B situation, he said the work environment is “not as glorious as it seems from outside.”

The caption of this Reddit post reads, “Returned from USA recently. My take on H1b situation and why Americans hate Indians taking up jobs there.”

Suggesting that one of the main reasons for his return was “toxic behavior” of Indian managers, his Reddit post says, “They exploit employees on visas, knowing how complicated and vulnerable the situation is since they themselves went through it.”

Highlighting favouritism in hiring practices, he wrote, “I don't think DJT's reasoning is entirely wrong there are so many Indians in higher positions who mainly hire other Indians, only to abuse them and their visa status.”

Narrating how Indian managers mistreat and exploit H-1B visa holders, he added, “They avoid hiring Americans because they know they can't push them to work 24/7, and Americans won't hesitate to sue if boundaries are crossed.”

Emphasising that the H-1B new rule would reduce favouritism in the workplace, he wrote that Walmart "is filled with Telugu managers and the only real hiring criterion seems to be 'are you Telugu?' and you'll get the job. Same with Gujaratis at Intel, where they prefer only hiring Gujaratis."

Social media reaction

A user wrote, “You know what’s the worst? The ones who abused the system to get the GC and Citizenship will never be the ones punished, it’ll always be the hard workers who don’t come from certain Indian states.”

Another user remarked, "The favoritism based on caste/region/language is definitely a problem. I have an older relative who’s a manager at a tech firm. She was talking about interviews and mentioned she interviewed two people for a role - an American and an Indian. She said she hired the Indian cos she was “our caste”. I wanted to throw up."

A third comment read, “We have a saying in Walmart IT- the systems are programmed in either java, C or telegu.”

A fourth user stated, “H1B has been a shaky visa even before these new regulations. Particularly for Indians. It’s not at all talent based. Purely luck and visa jugaad on part of the corporates oriented. It stopped being about talent in the early 2010s. Who are we kidding? Certain set of the IT services firms heavily underpay “skilled talent” and place workers. American businesses outsource unimportant work and not actual thinking work. Basically amounting to a slavery visa… but make it fancy.”

What is the revised H-1B visa application fee?

The US has hiked the H-1B visa application fee for high-skilled workers starting September 21. A revised one-time fee of $100,000 will be imposed on new H-1B applicants. The fee does not apply to existing visa holders or renewal applications.

However, the fee may be waived if the Secretary of Homeland Security determines that the workers are hired on an individual basis or to work for a specific company or industry is “in the national interest.”

“The Proclamation allows for potential exemptions, which can include physicians and medical residents. Ultimately, the Trump Administration defers to the language in the proclamation,” Bloomberg quoted White House spokesperson Taylor Rogers' statement.