Daijiworld Media Network – New York
New York, Jan 2: In a rare departure from its strict return-to-office policy, e-commerce giant Amazon has extended limited remote work flexibility to H-1B visa holders stranded in India due to prolonged US visa processing delays.
According to a report by Business Insider, Amazon has permitted certain affected employees to work remotely from India until March 2. The temporary arrangement applies to staff who were present in India as of December 13, 2025, and are still awaiting US visa appointments.
However, the remote work option comes with stringent restrictions. Impacted technical employees have been barred from coding-related activities, including troubleshooting, testing, deploying or even documenting software. They are also prohibited from interacting with customers, vendors or third-party partners, and cannot engage in discussions related to pricing or contractual matters.
Further, the employees are not allowed to take part in strategic decision-making, business planning, product management or hiring processes. Amazon has also strictly restricted physical access, stating that employees cannot work from or visit any Amazon offices or sites in India. All work must be carried out from a residential or non-Amazon location, with final reviews, decisions and approvals required to be completed outside India.
The move comes amid sweeping changes to the H-1B visa programme under the Trump administration, which has tightened scrutiny by mandating consular officers to review applicants’ social media activity before issuing visas. As a result, visa processing has slowed significantly, with embassies and consulates rescheduling appointments, leaving thousands of workers stranded overseas.
The internal memo reportedly does not clarify what happens to employees whose visa appointments are postponed beyond March 2, 2026, or those stranded in countries other than India. In several cases, US embassies have deferred appointments as far as 2027, deepening uncertainty among affected professionals.
For many technical employees, the restrictions have raised concerns about work relevance. “Seventy to eighty per cent of my job is coding, testing, deploying and documenting,” an Amazon software engineer was quoted as saying.
While other tech majors such as Google, Apple and Microsoft have also cautioned visa-holding employees against international travel due to consular backlogs, Amazon is among the most impacted companies. The firm filed over 14,700 H-1B applications in the 2024 fiscal year, underscoring its heavy dependence on foreign talent.
Though the temporary work-from-India arrangement offers limited relief, many Amazon employees continue to face uncertainty as visa delays stretch on, with some potentially unable to return to the US for years.