‘I have work permit’: Amazon cancels job offer after Bengaluru techie reaches Canada

Tech and e-commerce giant Amazon has delayed the onboarding of hundreds of new recruits across the world by over six months. The company has also rescinded some offers, Business Today has learned.

An Indian engineer, Arush Nagpal, claims that Amazon rescinded his job offer after he moved to Vancouver from Bengaluru.

In a LinkedIn post, Nagpal wrote, “ I decided to move to Vancouver to join Canada, but my offer has been rescinded, after a long immigration process, just before my joining date post landing in Canada. I served my notice period, have already shifted to Vancouver and received my work permit.”

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Nagpal noted that he even had a conversation with his manager a day before he moved to Vancouver, and even he did not inform him anything about this sudden change. He said, “What’s surprising is that I had a chat with my manager regarding my travel to Canada, just a day prior to my travel, but this news comes as a shock.”

Several other techies, including some freshers, have similar stories. Many of them have connected over social media platforms like Discord and Reddit. They have a collective database, which Business Today was given access to, which shows the average delay in joining of these new recruits is 181 days.

“I am a new graduate and my offer of SDE (Software Development Engineer) at Amazon has been delayed over 6 months. I am a CS major but I am looking for jobs in retail now, the tech scene looks bad. Will work at McDonald’s, maybe,” said a US-based techie whose onboarding has been delayed by Amazon.

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The roles most impacted are those of Software Development Engineer (SDE), Applied Scientist, Data Engineer, UX Designer, and Security Engineer, among others.

The new recruits are awaiting joining across several verticals at the company, including Amazon Web Services (AWS), Amazon Prime, Amazon Fresh, Amazon Experience and Tech, Alexa, Health, Selling Partner Services, Retail, Entertainment, Devices, Consumer, Subsidiaries, Finance and Accounts, Fulfillment and operations, among others.

The delay has been a pain point for Indians, as well as other immigrants, whose job locations were in the US.

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An Indian studying the US, who has an offer from Amazon, said he fears deportation due to the delay: “For me, this is basically like my offer being rescinded. I need a job to survive in the States till my joining date, I have nightmares that things will go south and I will be deported.”

It’s worth noting that the company has offered $13,000 to the recruits in the US because of the inconvenience caused due to the delay.

“$13,000 is being given for the delay period in the US, but it is honestly not that big a deal if you see the opportunity cost here. The compensation we get at the SDE-1 level at Amazon is upwards of $214k. You get the $13,000 only if you accept the delay and forego joining any other big tech company.”

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Business Today has reached out to Amazon for comments. The copy will be updated as and when they respond.