Find job or leave US: Mass layoffs leave H-1B techies in tight spot
H-1B visa holders who become unemployed can remain in the US legally for only 60 days without finding new employers to sponsor them. If they fail to find a job, they have to leave the country.
Recent mass layoffs by companies like Twitter and Meta have left hundreds of foreign nationals on H-1B visas in a tough situation. H-1B visa holders who become unemployed can remain in the US legally for only 60 days without finding new employers to sponsor them. If they fail to find another job within two months, they’ll have to leave the country.
Reports compiled by employees at Meta and Twitter indicate that the latest round of job cuts at those two companies alone has affected at least 350 immigrants.
The H-1B visa, demand for which is high particularly among Indian professionals, is issued for three years with possible extensions. The number of people allowed in a year is capped at 85,000.
Future tense
Many Indian H-1B visa holders are worried about being deported from the US as the technology sector is struggling right now. To make matters worse, while big companies like Amazon and Apple have stopped hiring, many have laid off staff.
Also read: After Twitter, Meta prepares for massive layoffs this week: Report
With laid-off workers left with little time to find another job, the chances are that most of them will have to leave the country. Many with H-1B visas have been living in the US for years, awaiting permanent citizenship. Now they’re frantically searching for jobs, along with thousands of other tech workers in a newly competitive labour market. Some have mortgages, student loans and children in school.
Desperate hunt
Due to these strict immigration regulations, former employees on H-1B visas have taken to social media to find new employment. Some have made direct appeals on LinkedIn, generating threads with hundreds of responses, including many citing job openings in the US and overseas.
Heartbreaking to see the recent layoffs in tech, especially for H1B visa holders who have only 60 days to find a new role.
If you’re impacted by the layoffs, please send me a note. I’ll be happy to help in any way I can. #layoffs #tech #job
— Shivansh (@Shivansh_C) November 8, 2022
Some have joined dedicated WhatsApp groups and submitting applications.
The layoffs have had an especially big impact on Indians, who tend to be on temporary visas longer than other foreign groups because of backlogs in getting a green card. Each country is allowed a maximum of 7 per cent of employment-based green cards each year, so while there are almost half a million Indian nationals in the queue, only about 10,000 green cards a year are available for them, a Bloomberg report says.
A congressional report estimated that Indians filing in 2020 would have to wait as long as 195 years for a green card. Chinese workers faced an 18-year wait; for people from the rest of the world, it’s less than a year, the report adds.
Also read: Twitter job cuts: What are digital layoffs, and how can employees cope?
Indian professionals are some of the highest paid in the US and are generally placed in top tech companies. It is highly likely that these professionals will move to developed economies like Canada, Europe, or Singapore to maintain their living standards instead of coming back to India.
As per the H-1B visa protocol, the original employer will need to book their return ticket.
Little help by companies
Many say they’re getting inadequate guidance from the companies that sponsored them. Companies have offered varying levels of support.
While some former Twitter employees said the company has provided little assistance and were instead asked to find their own attorney, the process of layoffs at Meta was more systematic.
Meta has indicated that it would provide immigration help, severance money, health insurance benefits, and many other advantages. According to a statement made by Zuckerberg in an official blog post, “I know this is especially difficult if you’re here on a visa. There’s a notice period before termination and some visa grace periods, which means everyone will have time to make plans and work through their immigration status. We have dedicated immigration specialists to help guide you based on what you and your family need.”
Elon Musk’s Twitter, on the other hand, didn’t provide any details related to supporting foreign workers impacted with layoffs. On the other hand, Emmanuel Cornet, a software engineer, was fired for allegedly developing a tool that allowed employees to save important documents in the wake of an imminent mass layoff. Emmanuel, along with four other former Twitter employees, have filed a lawsuit in federal court in California. The suit is filed accusing Twitter of violating California law, which requires 60 days prior notice before layoffs.
A former Twitter engineer, Emmanuel Cornet, has accused the company of firing him days after it was acquired by Elon Musk because he developed a tool to allow workers to save important documents in anticipation of mass layoffs, reports @DanWiessner https://t.co/8nEmd301ZF 1/6 pic.twitter.com/r3kayqxtB2
— Reuters Legal (@ReutersLegal) November 8, 2022
Amazon is giving workers 60 days to find a different job internally before taking them off the books, which extends their visa clock, according to three ex-employees.
Also read: Indian talent moving to Canada due to outdated H1B visa policy, US lawmakers told
The tech industry has long relied on the H-1B visa programme to meet its need for workers in specialized fields such as computer science and engineering. Amazon, Lyft, Meta, Salesforce, Stripe and Twitter have sponsored at least 45,000 H-1B workers in the past three years, according to a Bloomberg analysis of data from US Citizenship and Immigration Services.