H-1B Visa Holders Woes: Presidential Advisory Panel Recommends Increase in 60-days Grace Period

The recent lay-offs in the tech industry of the United States has left many high-skilled Indians fuming as they who went to the country on a H-1B visa category and they are given only 60-days window to find a new job or leave the country. 

In recent days, several tech giants like  Microsoft, Google, Meta, and Amazon and Twitter have laid-off thousands of employees including Indians and this has impacted all Indian workers as they have only 60 days to find a new employer to sponsor their visas or head back to their country of origin. 

Considering the difficult time the retrenched H-1B workers going through, the the presidential advisory sub-committee has recommended the federal government provide some relief to them by increasing the grace period from the current 60 days to 180 days. 

“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. 

Bhutoria claimed 60-days window is insufficient for the retrenched H-1B workers as it takes time to find a new employment. He also said the immigration law about the H-1B visa may result in a loss of high-skilled labour which is essential to the economic growth of the United States. 

What is an H-1B visa? 

The H-1B visa category allows the US companies to employ highly-skilled workers in various fields such as information technology, finance engineering, architecture, and accounting. In the event of being laid off, the H-1B visa holders only have 60 days to find a job and many laid-off workers say the time constraint feels like a bomb ticking everyday. 

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