Meta Platforms is reportedly facing a lawsuit from a former product design manager who claims he was fired after refusing to sign an immigration support letter for a Chinese engineer. James Tillinghast filed the lawsuit on August 17 in a US District Court in New Jersey. He alleges that the letter overstated the employee’s work and that he raised concerns about how Meta provided immigration assistance to some workers. The lawsuit claims the company retaliated against him after he refused to support statements he believed were inaccurate. It accuses Meta of providing immigration support more often to some Chinese national employees than to similarly placed workers from other countries.
According to the lawsuit, the dispute began in 2024 when Meta and outside immigration lawyers were preparing an I-140 petition for an employee in Tillinghast’s product design organisation. The petition sought an EB-2 National Interest Waiver, which can allow certain foreign workers to seek permanent residency in the US without a specific job offer and the usual labour certification requirement. A proposed managerial reference letter allegedly credited the employee with generating about $638 million in additional advertising revenue. It also described the worker as developing artificial intelligence tools and taking on wider leadership responsibilities. James Tillinghast claims that parts of the letter did not accurately describe the employee’s actual responsibilities. Tillinghast says engineering teams carried out much of the technical work that was attributed to the employee. He claims he discussed his concerns with Meta’s immigration legal team and worked with the employee to revise the letter. However, according to the complaint, Tillinghast eventually refused to sign statements that he believed he could not personally support. The lawsuit alleges that after he raised his concerns, his manager, Bolan Wang, provided or signed a replacement letter for the immigration petition. Tillinghast claims Meta then revoked his access to internal systems around August 29, 2024. His employment was formally ended on September 30.
James Tillinghast alleges that Meta did not identify a performance improvement plan, written warning or documented performance issue when his employment ended. He claims the company later blamed his dismissal on poor performance, but argues that this explanation was a pretext for retaliation over his objections. The lawsuit names both Meta Platforms and Wang as defendants.
The former manager also makes a separate allegation about Meta’s immigration assistance. According to the complaint, Meta provided company-coordinated immigration support more frequently to certain Chinese national employees than to similarly situated employees from other countries. The alleged assistance included access to immigration lawyers, help preparing and reviewing petition documents and support in obtaining managerial reference letters. Tillinghast claims Meta did not apply neutral and consistent criteria when providing these benefits. The lawsuit argues that immigration support was an employment-related benefit and that his objections to what he believed was unequal treatment were protected under New Jersey law.
