by Thousands of Indian IT professionals in the US, who’ve misplaced their jobs due to the sequence of latest layoffs at companies like Google, Microsoft and Amazon, at the moment are struggling to find new employment inside the stipulated interval below their work visas following the termination of their employment to keep in the nation.
According to The Washington Post, almost 200,000 IT employees have been laid off since November final 12 months, together with some file numbers in corporations like Google, Microsoft, Facebook and Amazon.
As per some trade insiders, between 30 to 40 per cent of them are Indian IT professionals, a major quantity of whom are on H-1B and L1 visas.
The H-1B visa is a non-immigrant visa that enables US corporations to make use of international employees in speciality occupations that require theoretical or technical experience. Technology corporations rely upon it to rent tens of thousands of staff annually from international locations like India and China.
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L-1A and L-1B visas can be found for short-term intracompany transferees who work in managerial positions or have specialised data.
A considerably giant quantity of Indian IT professionals, who’re on non-immigrant work visas like H-1B are L1, at the moment are scrambling for choices to keep in the US to find a new job in the stipulated few months time that they get below these international work visas after dropping their jobs and alter their visa standing as properly.
Amazon staffer Gita (identify modified) arrived in the US solely three months in the past. This week she was informed that March 20 is her final working day.
The scenario is getting worse for these on H-1B visas as they’ve to find a new job inside 60 days or else, they’d be left with no different choice however to head again to India.
Under present circumstances, when all IT corporations are on a firing spree, getting a job inside that quick interval, they really feel is subsequent to not possible.
Sita (identify modified), one other IT skilled on an H-1B visa, acquired laid off from Microsoft on January 18.
She is a single mom. Her son is in High School Junior 12 months, making ready for moving into faculty.
“This scenario is basically laborious on us,” she stated.
“It is unlucky that thousands of tech staff are going through layoffs, significantly these on H-1B visas who’re going through further challenges as they need to find a new job and switch their visa inside 60 days of termination or danger leaving the nation,” Silicon Valley-based entrepreneur and group chief Ajay Jain Bhutoria stated.
“This can have devastating penalties for households, together with the sale of properties and disruptions to kids’s training. It can be useful for tech corporations to present particular consideration for H-1B employees and lengthen their termination date by just a few months, because the job market and recruitment course of may be difficult,” he stated.
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Global Indian Technology Professionals Association (GITPRO) and Foundation for India and Indian Diaspora Studies (FIIDS) on Sunday launched a community-wide effort to try to assist these IT professionals by connecting job seekers to job referrers and informers. FIIDS will work on efforts to affect policymakers and decision-makers of US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS).
“With large layoffs in the tech trade, January 2023 has been brutal for tech professionals. Many proficient people misplaced their jobs. As the tech trade is dominated by Indian immigrants, they’re the very best to get impacted,” Khande Rao Kand stated.
The laid-off H-1B holders want to find an H-1B sponsoring job in 60 days or go away inside 10 days after changing into out of standing.
“This has an enormous disruption on the household lives and kids’s training and so forth on this tax-paying and contributing authorized immigrant,” Khande Rao Kand from FIIDS stated. Bhutoria stated it will be useful for the immigration course of to be redesigned to higher help H-1B employees and retain extremely expert expertise in the US.
In deep misery, the fired Indian IT employees have shaped varied WhatsApp teams to find methods to have an answer to the horrible scenario they’re in.
In one of the WhatsApp teams, there are greater than 800 jobless Indian IT employees who’re circulating amongst themselves vacancies showing in the nation.
In one other group, they’ve been discussing varied visa choices, with some immigration attorneys who’ve volunteered to supply their consultancy providers throughout this time.
“These circumstances have such a devastating impact on us immigrants and are nerve-wracking. We are kinda misplaced,” stated Rakesh (identify modified) was laid off from Microsoft on Thursday. He is in the US on an H-1B visa.
Adding to the miseries of Indian IT professionals is the newest determination of Google that they’re pausing their Green Card processing. This is primarily as a result of, at a time after they have fired thousands of staff, they can’t be seen arguing earlier than the USCIS that they want a international IT skilled as a everlasting resident. Other corporations are anticipated to observe the identical.
