NetApp not replacing US workers with H1B visa-holders
Rebutting racist undertone X posts
NetApp says it’s not true that it’s replacing laid-off US workers with people working in the USA via H-1B visas.
Various X Posts are claiming that NetApp, having received $500 million funding for US Defense work then sacked 700 American employees and hired 2,970 staffers on H-1B visas to replace them.
NetApp spokesperson Kenya Hayes told me: “The claim is incorrect. NetApp did not lay off American employees to replace them with H‑1B workers. Recent workforce changes reflect targeted restructuring and reinvestment into priority areas of the business - not backfilling employees. Our use of H‑1B visas is limited and compliant; our strategy of hiring the best talent fuels our competitive positioning and growth. We hire for merit - we don’t consider national origin, race, gender or any other legally protected characteristic, nor would such discrimination be compatible with our strategy and values.”
The H-1B visa program allows US employers to temporarily hire foreign employees for speciality occupations that require at least a bachelor’s university degree or its equivalent. Such non-immigrant foreign workers can initially stay in the US for up to 3 years. According to PEW Research, nearly 400,000 H-1B applications were approved in fiscal 2024, more than twice the fiscal 2000 number, and mostly H-1B visa renewal applications. Roughly three-quarters (73 percent) of H-1B workers whose applications were approved in fiscal 2023 were born in India.
PEW says that, since fiscal 2012, about 60 percent or more of H-1B workers approved each year have held a computer-related job. In fiscal 2023, Amazon had the most such approvals, 11,299, 2.9 percent of all approvals.
NetApp employed approximately 11,700 people globally in 2025. It laid off about 700 US employees last year. According to immigration law firm Ellis it made just 175 successful H-1B-related visa applications in 2025. The X posts seem simply ridiculous.