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
The massive layoffs of techies in the US have left hundreds living on temporary visas with little time to find another job, or they will have to leave the country, reported cnbctv18. Many have said they were receiving inadequate guidance from the companies that sponsored them.
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. Reports compiled by employees at Meta and Twitter indicate that the latest round of job cuts at those two companies alone had affected at least 350 immigrants. H-1B holders who could remain in the US legally for only 60 days without finding new employers to sponsor them.
Many people with H-1B visas have been living in the US for years, awaiting permanent citizenship. Now, they were 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.
What is more troubling for these techies is that many major employers have frozen hiring. Added to that is the fact that recruiting is slower during the holidays. With deadlines looming, desperate job hunters have turned to their professional networks to find a way to stay.
Some have made direct appeals on LinkedIn, generating threads with hundreds of responses, including many citing job openings in the US and overseas. Crowdsourced spreadsheets and referrals abound on social networks.
The H-1B programme allows US employers to recruit foreign workers with college degrees in technical fields where there is historically been a shortage of Americans. Visas are issued for three years, with possible extensions. The number of people allowed in each year is capped at 85,000, and demand is high, particularly among Indian professionals.
The median salary for an H-1B worker was $106,000 in the third quarter, according to data from the US Department of Labour. But workers at top tech companies make much more. The median salary for an H-1B worker at Meta, Salesforce and Twitter was about $175,000, not including hefty bonuses and stock options.
A USCIS spokesperson says the agency is exploring policy options to address challenges faced by immigrant communities and is committed to increasing access to immigration benefits
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 permanent residency (a green card).
Each country is typically allowed a maximum of 7 percent of the employment-based green cards issued 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 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.
Companies, which must pay for H-1B workers to return to their home country if they have to leave the US after losing their job, have offered varying levels of support for immigrants. Five former Twitter employees on temporary visas say the company has provided little assistance and was not clear when their 60-day grace period starts. When one worker asked for clarification, a company representative recommended finding their own attorney, because the law could be interpreted in different ways.
A USCIS spokesperson says the agency is exploring policy options to address challenges faced by immigrant communities and is committed to increasing access to immigration benefits.
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