Kamal Ghorui
As thousands of Oracle employees awoke earlier this week to an email informing them they had lost their jobs, many were unaware that the technology company had been filing large numbers of applications to hire foreign workers. According to federal data from the US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS), Oracle submitted about 3,126 petitions to employ H‑1B workers in the fiscal years 2025 and 2026, with 436 of those petitions filed in 2026 alone.The H‑1B visa programme allows employers to hire foreign nationals in specialised occupations such as tech and defence. Companies must file petitions with the US government to demonstrate that they cannot find local candidates with equivalent skills.The details of the visa filings stirred a row. On Blind, a forum for verified professionals, one user described Oracle’s H‑1B petitions as “a slap in our face.” The post added: “If this doesn’t make you angry, maybe you need to read some heartfelt posts on LinkedIn from Oracle employees who are US citizens and have been laid off after working at Oracle for years.” Another commenter said: “Look at all big tech companies, they do massive layoffs then rehire at lower salary.”Oracle’s mass layoffs were communicated on Tuesday in emails telling staff: “After careful consideration of Oracle’s current business needs, we have made the decision to eliminate your role as part of a broader organisational change. As a result, today is your last working day.” Affected workers were informed they would be “eligible to receive a severance package subject to the terms and conditions of the severance plan.”The controversy around the H‑1B filings comes against the backdrop of similar actions by other large technology firms. Amazon, which announced in January that it would cut 16,000 corporate jobs, filed about 2,675 H‑1B petitions during the same two‑year period.MAGA bigwigs and ‘America First’ supporters say that companies hiring large numbers of H‑1B workers disadvantages American workers. The wave of layoffs recorded more than 52,000 job cuts in the first three months of 2026, a noticeable increase compared with the same period last year, as artificial intelligence (AI) reshapes employment patterns.
