I spent years building a life in New York. Losing my job meant leaving my cats, my apartment, and the US.

Vivienne Yang moved from the US back to Taiwan after she lost her job in New York. Vivienne Yang Vivienne Yang moved from Taiwan to New York City in 2018 to chase the American dream. After she was laid off in 2024, she had to leave her Brooklyn apartment and her two cats behind. Now she's found peace in Taiwan, where she no longer has to worry about visas or her personal safety. This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with Vivienne Yang, a 31-year-old Taiwanese national who lost her job and had to leave the US because of her visa status, leaving behind her apartment and two cats. It has been edited for length and clarity. I started falling for the American dream when I was in third grade. It was a mix of realizing that the Taiwanese education system wasn't really designed for me and becoming hooked on American pop culture like Taylor Swift, "Twilight," and "America's Next Top Model." In 2018, at 23, I moved to New York for a master's in applied analytics at Columbia University , then landed a job in Manhattan's ad-tech industry. This is part of our ongoing coverage of how the Trump administration's H-1B visa changes affect workers. If you've been impacted and want to share your story, please fill out this short form for the reporter. Over the next five years, I worked two full-time jobs, one after the other, each paying about $100,000, until I was laid off in 2024. Getting laid off while on vacation Yang was laid off from her job while on vacation in Japan. Vivienne Yang It was October, and I was on the second day of a 10-day trip to Japan with my partner when I learned I'd been laid off. I was watching Japanese TV shows in our Airbnb after a day of sightseeing in Osaka, when my colleague called me on Instagram to say he couldn't find my Slack or email and that it looked like my account had been deactivated. I didn't receive any calls from HR because my US SIM card wasn't working. I tried to have fun on the trip while struggling with immigration issues . I