Amazon Visa Delays Immediate India Distant Work With Strict Restrictions

Amazon is permitting staff who’re stranded in India due to visa delays to work remotely there till early March, in response to an inside memo considered by Enterprise Insider.

The catch: They are not allowed to code, make strategic selections, or work together with clients.

Amazon is certainly one of many American firms scrambling to adapt to the Trump administration’s rapid-fire adjustments to the H-1B visa program, together with a mandate that consular officers should assessment visa candidates’ social media posts earlier than issuing visas. The extra screening has delayed processing, and a few embassies and consulates have rescheduled visa appointments by a number of months, leaving some staff stranded outdoors the nation.

The delays have prompted Google, Apple, Microsoft, and different firms to concern journey advisories in current weeks, warning US staff with visas to keep away from worldwide journey to forestall prolonged stays outdoors the US.

Amazon permits staff touring overseas for visa renewals to work remotely for as much as 20 enterprise days, an exemption from the conventional requirement that they work of their workplace 5 days every week. Now, any Amazon worker in India as of December 13 and who awaits a rescheduled visa appointment may match remotely till March 2, in response to the memo, which was posted to Amazon’s inside HR portal on December 17.

The permission to work remotely comes with a protracted record of constraints. Staff working remotely from India are barred from coding of any variety, together with troubleshooting and testing. They can’t work from or go to Amazon buildings. They usually can’t negotiate or signal contracts.

“All opinions, ultimate choice making, and signal offs must be undertaken outdoors India,” the memo says.

The memo additionally mentioned that “in compliance with native legal guidelines, there are not any exceptions to those restrictions.”

The memo doesn’t present steering for workers whose visa appointments have been rescheduled past March 2, 2026, or for these stranded in a unique nation. Some US embassies and consulates have rescheduled appointments as far out as 2027.

Amazon didn’t instantly reply to a request for remark from Enterprise Insider.

For workers in technical roles, the restrictions raised questions on what work they’ll really carry out.

“Seventy to eighty p.c of my job is coding, testing, deploying, and documenting,” one Amazon software program engineer instructed Enterprise Insider.

A State Division spokesperson in December instructed Enterprise Insider that the aim of the social media opinions is to make use of “all out there instruments” to flag visa candidates who’re inadmissible, together with those that pose a danger to nationwide pursuits.

The delays pose a selected problem for Amazon, which is among the many largest customers of the H-1B program. Through the 2024 authorities fiscal 12 months, Amazon filed 14,783 licensed H-1B purposes, together with 23 for Entire Meals, in response to Enterprise Insider’s evaluation of publicly out there information from the Division of Labor and US Citizenship and Immigration Providers.

Learn the total memo under:

H-1B/H-4 Visa Appointment Postponement Difficulty – December 17, 2025

Momentary Distant Work Authorization

Efficient instantly, impacted staff who have been in India as of December 13, 2025, and are awaiting their rescheduled visa appointment may match remotely till March 2, 2026. You have to comply with all present limitations on distant work actions, together with restrictions towards coding. See the FAQs under for particulars.

We proceed to watch developments intently and can present additional updates as extra data turns into out there. Within the meantime, in case you want extra assist please attain out by asking Aza or contacting MyHR Reside Assist to be linked to an HR skilled. You and your family even have 24/7 entry to a variety of assist and sources by means of Sources for Residing.

Worker Steering

The distant work grace interval is topic to the identical exercise restrictions (listed under) as all present distant work steering in India. In compliance with native legal guidelines, there are not any exceptions to those restrictions. You probably have questions, please work together with your supervisor and HRBP to find out what actions you’ll be able to interact in whereas overseas, primarily based on these tips:

• Don’t code. This consists of troubleshooting, testing, or documentation.
• Don’t work from or go to an Amazon constructing or website. All work should be distant from a residential tackle or different non-Amazon location.
• Don’t give the impression of authority to bind any Amazon entity or appoint an agent licensed to bind any Amazon entity to any contract or settlement.
• Don’t undertake any strategic enterprise selections, enterprise planning, product administration/growth, and/or enterprise growth sort actions.
• Don’t negotiate any contracts, signal/execute or in any other case conclude any contracts, or safe any orders, both within the approval instruments and/or DocuSign (or by way of another methodology).
• Don’t render any providers to any buyer (resident or in any other case) or to any Amazon entity within the nation the place the worker is remotely working, or in any other case carry out any exercise that straight advantages an Amazon entity within the nation the place distant working is happening.
• Don’t carry out any exercise referring to directing, controlling, or supervising or facilitating the day-to-day operations of any Amazon native entity or worker of an Amazon native group within the nation the place the worker is working remotely.
• Don’t make hiring selections for any Amazon entities in India.
• Don’t carry out any exercise associated to managing any buyer/associate/vendor relationship, similar to discussing particular contract phrases, pricing negotiations, putting orders, accepting orders, or soliciting gross sales.
• All employment-related issues ought to proceed to be determined by the respective authorized using entity, i.e. the Amazon U.S. entity.
• All opinions, ultimate choice making, and signal offs must be undertaken outdoors India.
• AWS staff are anticipated to stick to the AWS Working Steering while working remotely, the identical method they’d comply with the steering throughout regular occasions.

Have a tip? Contact Pranav Dixit by way of e mail at pranavdixit@protonmail.com or Sign at 1-408-905-9124. Use a private e mail tackle, a nonwork WiFi community, and a nonwork system; here is our information to sharing data securely.