The recent layoffs of thousands of employees, especially Indians, at big companies like Microsoft, Google, Meta, and Amazon and Twitter have left many employees concerned about their job security, especially H1B visa holders. Layoffs have an impact on H1B visa holders' futures because they have 60 days to locate a new employer to sponsor their visas or leave the country.
To provide some relief the presidential advisory sub-committee has recommended the federal government to increase the grace period for thousands of retrenched H-1B workers from the current 60 days to 180 days so that they have enough time to find a new job or other options, which has provided a significant reprieve for H-1B visa holders.
“The immigration subcommittee recommends the Department of Homeland Security and the US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) to extend the grace period for H-1B workers, who have lost their jobs, from 60 days to 180 days." said Ajay Jain Bhutoria, member of the President’s Advisory Commission on Asian Americans, Native Hawaiians, and Pacific Islanders on Tuesday.
Bhutoria emphasised in his presentation the tremendous difficulties experienced by H-1B individuals who lose their jobs. The current 60-day grace period, he claimed, offers a number of difficulties, including the need to find a new employment quickly, the difficulty of transferring H-1B status, and delays in USCIS processing.
He added that this is forcing many H-1B workers to leave the country which could result in a loss of skilled labour for the United States.
In his presentation, Bhutoria, strongly advocated for the extension of the grace period, citing the need to support highly skilled tech employees who he said are essential to the economic growth of the United States.
The extension would also provide affected employees with more time to navigate the complex and time-consuming process of finding new employment opportunities and transferring their H-1B status, he said.
What is the issue the H1B visa holders face?
Earlier many H1B visa holders who have been laid off had told CNBC-TV18.com the mental pressure and anxiety they go through due the the 60 days time limit.
“I am on an H-1B visa and my clock to leave the USA has started today,” Raju Kadam — former Senior Technical Program Manager at Meta — wrote on LinkedIn after he lost his job when Facebook’s parent company Meta started the exercise of firing 13 percent of its 11,000-strong workforce.
An H-1B Visa allows US employers to hire highly skilled workers in specialised fields such as information technology, finance engineering, architecture, and accounting. In the event of being laid off, an individual has 60 days to find a new job or they must leave the USA for their home country.
“Therefore, if your employment ends on the weekend, you will have up to 60 days to secure another employer to file an H-1B petition on your behalf, change your status, or leave the United States. In order to maintain your legal status under H-1B, you must be employed and receive a salary, as specified in your employer's H-1B petition,” said Daya Prakash, Founder, TalentOnLease
Due to the recent layoffs of such visa holders at big tech companies, there has been an influx of people seeking jobs. Another problem that unemployed H-1B visa holders face is the fact that many companies will slow down their hiring processes during the Christmas period — this may cause problems for people whose family is in the States or whose kids are in school.
“I have been living in the USA for the past eight years and I just joined Meta a year ago, I have two sons who are US citizens and now that I have been laid off,
I need to find a job under all the pressure or we would need to relocate back to India. The time constraint feels like a bomb ticking everyday,” said Vipul Mehta, who was part of the product team at Meta.
Companies also demand some relaxation in the rules
In a recent survey conducted by Envoy Global, a world-renowned immigration services provider, several HR professionals were asked about their company's immigration functions.
A total of 443 respondents were interviewed in the survey conducted in February. Eighty nine percent of companies so far have hired one or more foreign national employees who were previously laid off by another company in the last six months, mentioned the report titled ‘2023 Immigration Trends.’
The survey also found that despite the high demand to sponsor foreign talent in the US, immigration barriers are leading employers to relocate foreign national employees overseas and outsource jobs.
Last year, 81 percent of companies transferred foreign national employees to foreign offices because of visa-related issues in the US, and 80 percent shifted employees to work remotely overseas again for the same reason, mentioned the survey.
As per the employees surveyed, US immigration barriers are commonly behind loss of foreign talent.
(With inputs from PTI)
First Published: Mar 15, 2023 4:11 PM IST
