Visa delays usually aren’t just paperwork. For a lot of mid-career women balancing kids, money, and cross-border roles, a slipped appointment can blow up an entire plan. That’s the backdrop to Amazon telling some employees who are stuck in India that they can keep working remotely for a while instead of sitting in limbo.
The policy is narrowly defined. It applies to employees who were in India as of December 13, 2025 and are still waiting on a rescheduled U.S. visa appointment, and it lets them work remotely until March 2, 2026. The catch is the list of guardrails.
While working from India, affected employees can’t do coding (including related engineering work like testing or troubleshooting), can’t engage customers, can’t make strategic business decisions, and can’t negotiate or sign contracts. Approvals and final sign-offs need to happen outside India, and employees aren’t allowed to work from Amazon offices there.
This is why it’s worth paying attention to as a remote work signal heading into 2026. Amazon has pushed hard on return-to-office rules, yet it still created a multi-month exception when the immigration system couldn’t move fast enough. It’s a reminder that flexibility isn’t only a lifestyle perk now.
It’s risk management. Companies that can flip to compliant remote work quickly can keep projects moving and keep experienced people, including many senior women on visas, from being forced into long breaks.
At the same time, it’s not a “work from anywhere” fantasy. The restrictions are the story. They show how global remote work gets shaped by tax, legal, and regulatory boundaries, even when the company wants to be supportive. That tension, real human needs on one side and compliance limits on the other, is exactly where cross-border career planning is heading in 2026.
If you are thinking about your own long term career strategy, especially around visas, location choices, or family moves, this is the kind of case study worth understanding in full. Take a few minutes to read the complete coverage in People Matters and the memo details via Business Insider to see exactly how the rules work and what they could mean for you.
