Meta description: Amazon recently issued temporary remote-work guidance for H-1B employees stranded in India that is unusually restrictive — this post explains what those restrictions mean, lists the specific “don’ts,” gives practical examples, outlines possible consequences, and shows the steps you should take if asked to cross the line.
Amazon to H-1B employees working in India: You can't code or sign — Full list of don'ts
Intro
I want to walk you through what happened, why it matters, and what to do if you or a colleague at a U.S. employer (Amazon and similar companies) are affected. In mid-December 2025 Amazon published temporary remote-work guidance for U.S.-employed staff who were in India and waiting for rescheduled H-1B/H-4 visa appointments. The permission to work remotely was limited in scope and paired with a strict set of prohibitions designed to align corporate operations with local and immigration compliance requirements Business Insider.
Legal & compliance background (short)
- Why this exists: when U.S.-based employees perform substantive work from a foreign country, local corporate presence, permanent establishment, export-control, data-transfer, labor, and immigration rules can be implicated. Companies mitigate risk by restricting certain activities while an employee is physically located abroad.
- What Amazon (and many peers) have done: allow temporary remote work for impacted employees but prohibit activities that could create local legal exposure or that effectively transfer decision-making and operational authority to the foreign location.
Numbered list — Specific “don’ts” for H-1B employees working in India (Amazon / similar U.S. employers)
- Do not write or change production code (no coding). This includes development, troubleshooting, fixes, commits, pull requests, deployments, or writing new modules.
- Do not perform testing activities. No unit tests, integration tests, or QA tasks that are part of the engineering workflow.
- Do not create, edit, or finalize technical documentation tied to deliverables that would be relied on for production changes.
- Do not sign, execute, or otherwise conclude contracts. This includes DocuSign, approval tools, or any form of signature that binds a business or vendor agreement.
- Do not negotiate pricing, contract terms, or commercial agreements with customers, vendors, or partners.
- Do not make strategic or business decisions. This includes product strategy, release decisions, procurement decisions, or road‑mapping that affect business direction.
- Do not represent that you have authority to bind the company or appoint agents who can bind the company.
- Do not render services to customers in the country where you’re physically located (i.e., do not engage in work that directly benefits the local entity in India).
- Do not direct, supervise, or manage local teams or day‑to‑day operations of any local entity.
- Do not perform hiring, firing, compensation, or employment‑contract decisions for local entities.
- Do not work from or visit company offices, facilities, or client sites in the country where you are located — work must be from a residential or other non-company location.
- Ensure all final reviews, sign‑offs, and approvals are completed outside the foreign country (i.e., by the U.S. employing entity or staff not located in India).
Practical examples (what this looks like day-to-day)
- An engineer: You can attend team standups and handle high-level prioritization discussions, but you may not push code, review PRs that would lead to merging and deployment, or debug production incidents that require source changes.
- A product manager: You can participate in high-level planning conversations, but you cannot finalize a release plan, sign acceptance of a vendor deliverable, or authorize product changes that will be executed locally.
- A commercial manager: You may join informational calls but must not negotiate contract terms, accept purchase orders, or execute vendor agreements while physically in India.
Possible consequences for violations
- Employer compliance risk: The company could face tax, transfer-pricing, permanent‑establishment exposure, or penalties in India or other jurisdictions.
- Immigration risk: Improperly working while abroad — particularly in ways that create local presence — can complicate future visa adjudications or trigger review of status.
- Employment consequences: Disciplinary action up to termination for breaching internal policy and compliance rules.
- Reputational and contractual fallout: Unauthorized contracts or commitments could be voided and harm customer or partner relationships.
Steps employees should take if asked to do any of these
- Pause and clarify: If asked to perform a restricted task, ask for written clarification of the request and which policy permits it.
- Document everything: Keep written records (email/IM) of the request and any instructions you receive.
- Notify manager & HR/People operations: Immediately inform your manager and HRBP (or the company compliance team) that the request involves a potentially restricted activity while you are physically located in India.
- Escalate to compliance/legal if needed: If the ask remains unclear or you’re pressured, request escalation to the compliance or legal team and get their written direction before proceeding.
- Offer alternatives: Propose safe alternatives — for example, hand off the code commit or sign‑off to a US‑based colleague, provide high‑level input, or prepare non-binding notes that a U.S. manager can convert into an approved action outside India.
- Avoid unilateral fixes: Don’t take “workarounds” such as using personal accounts or non-company tools to perform restricted actions — those can increase risk.
Recommended best practices (practical and proactive)
- Get the policy in writing and save it (internal HR/IT/compliance guidance).
- When traveling for visa stamping, plan for contingency (who will own your approvals, on-call rotations, deployments).
- Maintain a clear separation of duties: document who will perform final sign-offs and where those decision-makers are physically located.
- Use secure, approved channels for all company communications and follow guidance about workplace location (residential only).
- If work is constrained, request meaningful alternative tasks aligned with policy (e.g., training, knowledge-transfer, documentation that’s non-binding, research, or mentoring that doesn’t produce deployable assets).
Conclusion
These temporary restrictions are blunt instruments designed to reduce legal and tax exposure when U.S. employees are physically located abroad. If you’re affected, the single most important approach is caution: don’t guess, document requests, escalate to HR/compliance, and insist on written approvals before doing anything that could be interpreted as binding, operational, or transformative for the business. Thoughtful handoffs and clear records protect both you and your employer while visa issues are resolved.
Regards,
Hemen Parekh
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