Fri. Mar 29th, 2024

We Pave Your Career Path

Layoffs strip away tech worker visas along with jobs

3 min read
Layoffs strip

Layoffs strip: To avoid being forced to uproot their lives and leave the country, laid-off US tech workers on employment-based visas are frantically searching for new employment.

In the past few months, more than 150,000 tech jobs in the United States have disappeared, dealing Silicon Valley an economic blow not seen since the dot-com bubble burst in the early 2000s.

According to California congresswomen Anna Eshoo and Zoe Lofgren, many of the people who have lost their jobs are here on H1-B visas or visas pegged to their jobs as the massive wave of layoffs spreads across US tech companies.

In a letter, Eshoo and Lofgren urged US immigration officials to at least double the 60-day window within which foreign-born workers on employment-based visas can find new jobs.

Employees who are fired are forced to leave the country. Unless they find a new job at a company that can grant them a visa.

Tahmina Watson, an immigration attorney based in Seattle, stated, “They are freaking out beyond measure.”

They are “absolutely in a bind” due to they don’t know what they are going to do.”

Nearly a quarter of the US science and tech workforce is made up of foreign-born workers, according to Eshoo and Lofgren.

Layoffs strip Away Tech Workers

Advocates told AFP that immigrant tech workers frequently established themselves and started families in the United States.

Watson stated, “They go from being households with two incomes to households with no income. With mortgages, marriages, car payments, and children.”

“Your affairs cannot be completed in sixty days; There isn’t enough time to look for a new job and apply for a new H1-B visa.”

On Change.org, a petition organized by the Foundation for India and Indian Diaspora Studies urged US President Joe Biden. To extend the visa grace period to a full year for humanitarian reasons.

As of Wednesday, the petition had more than 2,300 signatures.

According to foundation director Khanderao Kand, “my ask here is to increase the grace period and let them figure it out.”

Advocates contend that an exodus of tech talent from immigrants could hurt the US economy.

In their letter to the heads of US Citizenship and Immigration Services and Homeland Security, Eshoo and Lofgren stated that immigrants founded more than half of the country’s billion-dollar tech companies.

The letter stated, “We must prevent this brain drain to ensure that the successful companies of the future are based in the United States.”

According to Kand, who spoke with AFP, Silicon Valley is home to a large number of immigrants from China, Europe, and India. Many of these immigrants are not just looking for work. But also working toward creating jobs with startups or investment capital.

Tech worker visas looking for New Jobs

Kand argued that tech talent forced to leave the United States will likely settle elsewhere and never return. Bringing their families and dreams with them.

According to Watson, giving tech talent from immigrant countries a chance to stay could fuel a startup boom. Because some layoffs strip chooses to start their businesses.

The lawyer added, “I think we will find we are hurting in the future if we lose this talent. Because these people will know that America doesn’t care about them.”

According to Watson, Among tactic turned to by the newly unemployed is changing to tourist visas. Which gives them six months instead of two in which they can hunt for jobs or tend to affairs.

Watson stated, “If they can’t find a job, it gives them time to sell their car, and end a lease. Do what they need, or figure out their paperwork to go to Canada.”

“Canada is doing the opposite and welcoming immigrants, while we are closing our doors to them.”

[Techies may soon be able to get their H-1B visas renewed while still in the United States]

According to Reza Malekzadeh, president of French Tech San Francisco, job cuts at tech giants like Alphabet, Amazon, and Microsoft have been making headlines, but startups have also been cutting staff.

Malekzadeh shared this information with AFP: “I think culturally Europeans are not used to it. Especially the French because they are not used to it being easy to lay people off.”

“We try to assist one another. I have not yet observed a significant wave returning to France; I believe they have faith.

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