An H-1B visa job loss upended Vivienne Yang’s carefully constructed American life, stripping the 31-year-old Taiwanese national of her New York apartment, her two cats, and the career she had spent years building in Manhattan’s ad-tech industry.
A decade of planning, ended in a phone call
Yang moved to New York in 2018 to study at Columbia University, where she enrolled in the full-time Master of Science in Applied Analytics offered through Columbia’s School of Professional Studies. After graduating, she landed a role in ad-tech, then worked two consecutive full-time jobs in Manhattan, each paying about $100,000 a year.
The news of her redundancy arrived in October 2024 in the most disorienting of settings. She was watching Japanese television in an Osaka Airbnb, on the second day of a ten-day holiday with her partner, when a colleague called via Instagram to say her Slack account and email had disappeared. Her US SIM card was not working, so HR’s calls never came through.
She spent her mornings in Japan on calls with immigration and labour lawyers. The afternoons were for sightseeing. Two days after hearing the news, she cried at a shrine in Kyoto, she told Business Insider.
The H-1B visa job loss timeline that forced her hand
Under US immigration rules, terminated H-1B workers receive a grace period of up to 60 consecutive calendar days, or until the end of their authorised validity period, whichever is shorter, according to US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS). During that window, they may file for a change of status, seek a new employer petition, or apply for adjustment of status. Yang’s employer agreed to extend her employment for a few additional weeks so she could return to the US first.
Back in New York, she converted from an H-1B to a B-2 tourist visa, then renewed it, buying herself roughly a year to search for a new role. She had more than 20 unsuccessful interviews. She also noticed a shift in the market: in September of last year, the Trump administration announced a $100,000 fee for new H-1B applicants. Although that particular measure would not have applied to her personally, she told Business Insider she felt it affected employers’ willingness to hire foreign workers.
After months without an offer in corporate roles, she turned to acting, gaining acceptance to a New York programme due to start in March this year. That path, too, closed. She travelled to Taiwan in December 2025 to apply for a student visa and was rejected on the grounds that she had demonstrated immigration intent. She cried from her apartment in Brooklyn all the way to JFK and through the flight.
Her American partner moved into the Brooklyn apartment to look after her cats, Dexter and Deborah, while she worked out a route back. Eventually, she concluded that the current political and economic climate made a return inadvisable for now.
Life in Taiwan after New York
Yang now lives in Yilan, a town in northeastern Taiwan, sharing a three-bedroom apartment with her mother, father, sister, and grandmother. She sleeps on a portable bed in the storage room. She teaches public speaking in English and is building a content-creation business, using savings to pay the mortgage on the Brooklyn flat she still owns.
The contrasts are stark. Healthcare that cost her anxiety and uncertainty in New York costs less than $10 at a local clinic in Yilan. She no longer has to map every professional decision against visa categories. Her partner plans to bring the cats over in October.
The route Yang took through the US immigration system illustrates a broader pressure point. USCIS rules give terminated H-1B holders a narrow window to pivot, and the Department of Homeland Security has discretion over student visa decisions that can close even legal fallback options, as Yang discovered when her student application was denied.
Yang told Business Insider she does not regret the move to the US. Without it, she said, she would still be wondering ‘what if.’ Now, she said, she knows exactly what she wants. Whether her Brooklyn apartment remains an investment or a place to return to may depend on how US immigration policy develops in the months ahead.