Mastodawn

Oracle Files H-1B Visa Petitions Amid Mass Layoffs

https://nationaltoday.com/us/tx/austin/news/2026/04/03/oracle-files-thousands-of-h-1b-visa-petitions-amid-mass-layoffs/

Oracle Files Thousands of H-1B Visa Petitions Amid Mass Layoffs - Austin Today

Oracle, the software company headquartered in Austin, Texas, has filed thousands of petitions for H-1B visas in the past two fiscal years, even as it lays off thousands of American workers as part of a broader organizational shift. Federal data shows Oracle filed for 2,690 H-1B visas in fiscal year 2025 and 436 so far in fiscal year 2026, totaling over 3,100 visa requests.

National Today

Wherever their major offices are look for newspapers in the small towns nearby advertising for "Software developers for Oracle" all written in the tiniest print, right next to classified that sell used bikes, car parts and other stuff.

- "Well, Uncle Sam, we looked so hard in US and nobody answered our job posts, we have to go to ... $othercountry to hire, there is no other way"

toomuchtodo 5d ago

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44880832

https://www.jobs.now/

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44892321

There is no requirement to demonstrate that you cannot find an American to do th... | Hacker News

I remember seeing it on HN but didn't know if would still be up. Glad it's still going. Thanks!

Just to cut through the headline here. The largest chunk of Oracle layoffs were in India [1]. In comparison, they've barely fired any American workers.

Contrary to popular opinion, IT workers aren't interchangeable and there exist a large swath of jobs that very few people qualify for (HN should know this) because of the specialization required.

America is at near full employment [2]. Replacing American workers with lower paid foreign workers is already illegal and frequently enforced[3].

This is such a deep distraction but a virulent virus of a narrative, surgically designed to needle our reptilian minds.

[1]: https://www.goodreturns.in/news/tech-layoffs-2025-oracle-cut...

[2]: https://www.statista.com/statistics/269959/employment-in-the...

[3]: https://www.dol.gov/newsroom/releases/whd/whd20180501-2, https://www.dol.gov/newsroom/releases/whd/whd20180501-2

One More Tech Layoff! Oracle Cuts Jobs Across India, US & Mexico; 10% of Indian Employees Among Worst-Hit

In India, Oracle employed close to 28,824 people as of 2024, contributing to the companys total global headcount of around 1.62 lakh in 2025. With a large presence in software development, cloud services, and technical support, India has been a key talent hub for the company. The sudden job losses are expected to have a significant impact on the local IT workforce.

Goodreturns

From your first link, it says 10% of 28k employees in India were cut. I personally know several people who were laid off from Oracle this week (OCI). One person who's still there described it as a "bloodbath across our division" and says he counted 15k. I don't know what exactly he was counting but as we're in North America I am assuming they're all here. Whereas India layoffs were fewer than 3k. So that directly disputes your statement that "they've barely fired any American workers".

Yes 15k is the global number including massive international call centers all becoming obsolete.

This is what a generational specialization swap out looks like.

Oracle is hiring as many people in America as H1B filings this year [1] (though most H1B filings will fail, something the article conveniently leaves out) this is literally the pie growing from all sides but just becoming a blueberry AI pie from an apple pie

[1] https://careers.oracle.com/en/sites/jobsearch/jobs?location=...

Oracle Careers

Oracle

dominotw 5d ago

[flagged]

iugtmkbdfil834 5d ago

<< HN should know this

HN does know. Some of us question whether brave and courageous leadership knows.

Oracle laid off 491 people in Seattle this week.

Noumenon72 5d ago

Your [3] shows that the government enforces paying H1-Bs competitive salaries, not that it cares about the Americans they replaced.

[flagged]

nobodyandproud 5d ago

Easier to fire? Still costs less? Do what they’re told, because they’re chained to the company and job?

Because their H1B status is tied to their job so they will put up with way more abuse.

anonym29 5d ago

Because H1b is an arrangement that more or less amounts to indentured servitude where vulnerable people have their visa status glued to their at-will employment agreement, resulting in a dynamic where employers can and frequently do expect unpaid overtime, fewer sick days, and otherwise disproportionately greater value from h1b employees, and those who fail to meet these unfair expectations are let go and effectively evicted from the country as it is extraordinarily rare to to secure another h1b job within 60 days.

The number on two paystubs can be the exact same while one person is being brutally overworked and the other given a leisurely, comfortable WLB, which effectively amounts to underpaying the foreign labor, per unit of output, devaluing each unit of labor of domestic output.

H1b is tied to employment, not to the employer. You can change employers on the same H1.

It’s not great. But this is similar to how health insurance is tied to employment, not to the employer. Both citizens and H1 employees experience the same abuse here

darth_avocado 5d ago

Also to cut through the headlines once again. What the article actually says:

> Federal data shows Oracle filed for 2,690 H-1B visas in fiscal year 2025 and 436 so far in fiscal year 2026, totaling over 3,100 visa requests.

There is no proof that these people were also not part of the layoffs. Typically in layoffs, until the day off the announcement, it’s just business as usual. Which means people keep getting hired and H1B petitions being filed. The article doesn’t say they filed these petitions AFTER the layoffs.

ergocoder 5d ago

Stanford also filed an H1B this year to hire an IT person.

https://x.com/chrisbrunet/status/2037376353461567734

Apparently, no citizen wants to do this job? Why do we allow things like this?

Chris Brunet (@chrisbrunet) on X

Stanford University (@Stanford) just posted a notice of intent to hire an H-1B Database Administrator Salary: $142,000 No software developer in the Bay area was qualified to administer this database.

X (formerly Twitter)

andriy_koval 5d ago

"we" don't allow, but also don't enforce (violators are rarely punished).

ergocoder 5d ago

I feel like this is legal i.e. we allow it.

Stanford wouldn't blatantly violate laws like this.

andriy_koval 5d ago

it could be not blatant violation, but they more like don't track this on their side because don't think it is a big deal, so some individual can act like that.

Blatant violation would be if they do it on many cases and large scale.

jltsiren 5d ago

Without knowing anything about that particular case, I would assume that the person was initially hired as an F-1 student and later changed to OPT status. University IT tends to hire students to entry-level positions all around the world. And now Stanford wants to keep the proven employee instead of going through the uncertainty of hiring a new person.

So maybe the actual question is what kind of a Stanford undergraduate would choose a university IT position in ~2021 instead of aiming for more lucrative tech roles. Perhaps the kind that wants to maximize their chances of getting H-1B.

QGQBGdeZREunxLe 5d ago

It's always puzzled me that layoffs don't result in a temporary bar from using the H1B system like it does for filing PERMs with the DoL.

orochimaaru 5d ago

The H1B has “speciality” categories. You can lay off in one “speciality” while hiring for others. It’s silly but that’s how it’s setup at the moment.

I agree with you. The category list in H1B needs to be trimmed. So that companies have less wiggle room for things like this.

The layoffs were also worldwide. Not sure what the impact to US workers was. India was hit hard.

PearlRiver 5d ago

The US only has two political parties and they are both, secretly, pro immigration.

The EU is actually clamping down on it because of populist/far right parties. I know someone who runs a Thai restaurant and he cannot fly in a cook from Asia. He has to find someone from Europe.

To be fair the US is pro-immigration and that’s no secret. H1-B is a guest worker visa. Those jobs could equally go to immigrants.

They should also trigger holds on bunch of other operations, like stock buyouts or sales by people with active or recent relationship to the company

reenorap 5d ago

The title is extremely deceitful. They filed H1Bs for 2025 and 2026, but not after or during the layoffs from last week.

That’s like saying “Oracle hires tens of thousands and mass layoffs” (* hired during the pandemic)

lateforwork 5d ago

Keep in mind that employers have to pay $100,000 in visa fees (in addition to competitive salaries) for each H-1B visa. Clearly these immigrants are not undercutting US workers. It is $100K cheaper to hire a US worker.

VectorLock 5d ago

Unless they get waivers, which I'm sure Larry has worked out with his buddy.

jinglebell2025 5d ago

America has an H1b invasion problem