Ritu Jha-
On November 10 last year, Mani (who does not want to be identified by his full name for this story) lost his job in what turned out to be the first phase of mass tech-sector layoffs in the United States.
Since then, the Indian immigrant on an H-1B visa, has circulated his resume to “between 20 and 25 companies” and spoken to several job consulting firms. He even got a job, but at the last moment, the company froze all new hires, leaving him high and dry.
Since his previous employer paid him for two months, Mani’s grace period began on January 11, and his grace period of 60 days will end in the second week of March. Time, he said, is running out. Current rules state that a person can be sent back to his or her home country within a maximum of 10 days after the grace period ends.
Mani is not alone. Hundreds of Indian immigrants on both H-1B and L1 work visas find themselves out of a job in the US after several rounds of mass layoffs – led by Meta, Google, Microsoft and Amazon – that has left thousands jobless.
In a concerted campaign, tech sector employees and their lawyers have been lobbying with the US government to increase the grace period from 60 days to 180. Under current rules, if H-1B or an L1 visa holders find themselves out of a job, they have to find an employer who is willing to sponsor them within 60 days, or they are sent back to their home country within 10 days after the grace period ends.
“Time is running out,” Mani told indica over the phone. “And there are not many jobs out there.” Mani came to the US in 2007 on an F1 student visa to do a masters in electrical engineering from Rochester Institute of Technology in New York. He had seen mass layoffs during the 2008-09 recession as well. “Friends at the time accepted even $30,000 annual packages just to maintain their legal status.”
Fortunately for Mani, he was a student then and survived the crisis, though many of his senior friends did not, and returned to India. “There were fewer companies then. Now, we have so many, and yet finding a job is near impossible,” Mani said.
Over the years, Mani has bought two houses in Silicon Valley and has mortgages to pay. He has a six-year-old son who goes to a private school in Pleasanton, California. He and his wife became parents to another baby boy in December 2022. “I was not able to celebrate his birth properly because the layoff happened just a few weeks prior.”
With so much at stake in the US, Mani – who is on the green card waiting list – feels the government should give 180-day grace period rather than just 60.
Khanderao Kand, a leading San Jose-based technologist who created the Foundation for India and Indian Diaspora Studies (FIIDS) and Global Indian Technology Professionals Association (GITPRO) told indica in a statement, “FIIDS appeals to the President of the United States, the secretary of the Department of Homeland Security, the members of Congress, the Senate, and the USCIS to sympathetically consider the impact of the families on humanitarian grounds and extend the two months grace period to at least to six months.”
He said the brutal way in which layoffs are taking place will lead to a mass exodus of talent from the US and will harm the country’s long-term interests. “It will hugely disrupt legal immigrants’ families and their children’s education, including the children who are US-born citizens. Silicon Valley is mostly built and run by tech immigrants where more than 70% of startups have immigrant Indian cofounders and more than 50 CEOs of public companies are migrants of Indian origin.”
Kand said two months is short a time during a recession. “People who migrated to the US a long time back, and have either gotten their green cards or have filed for one, don’t seem much concerned by the visa problem. They are concerned about their jobs but not about visas.”
He said, “Immigrants who are fresh graduates are concerned because if they lose their job, they’ll lose everything. In cases where either the husband or the wife is working then the problem is more critical. They will immediately need to leave the country. Some of them have bought houses, fancy cars, and because most of these people are seeing the economic downturn for the first time, they are the ones who are concerned. They never thought that these companies would lay off people.”
Kand said the good severance packages given by the big companies will act as a cushion. But here’s the problem. Even the most qualified among them who are getting jobs are not being offered the salaries they are used to. “That is another major concern for immigrants, and, FIIDS has raised this issue too with the authorities while pressing for an extension of the grace period.”
He said, “The US government must appreciate the fact that these immigrants and the startups operated by them generate the largest chunk of tax revenue and they are the country’s highest taxpayers. We should support them at this critical juncture, give them more time so that they can find their feet again.”
Surabhi, a single woman who worked at Meta and lost her job in November, says the offer package has dropped and that is hard to accept; however, she is hopeful of finding a job that is up to her skill and remuneration level. “To hang on to my status, yes, I can find projects, but not what I really want.”
A few of her friends have already left for India. “People are coming forward to help and even those that I have never met are trying to help. Even colleagues at Meta [her ‘Metamates’],” she said.
Mani says remuneration packages have dropped by over 30%. “People who are fresh out of college will face tough times since they have taken a hefty loan back in India to study in the US,” he said.
The only big firm that has not announced layoffs is Apple, but even the iPhone maker has frozen new hiring. “They used to hire by the hundreds last year. Not anymore.”
Reena Gupta, author of Career Interrupted and is a work-life balance coach, said people suddenly started reaching out to her in November. A WhatsApp group was formed with over a 100 job seekers and advisors. “It has become like a community,” she said. “Everybody is trying to help.”
Kand said he will be hosting Zoom calls to help people find jobs. “GITPRO has launched Job Assistance Network https://forms.gle/L24oBCByVLWiThJx7 to connect job seekers to job referrers/informers. Job seekers as well as those who can help them should provide the information for the help.”
He said the US is facing a Covid-like scenario all over again, but with regards to the economy and jobs. “A lot of rules were changed during Covid. It was an unparalleled situation. This too is an unparalleled situation, and we need to respond.”
Out-of-work Indian immigrants face uncertain future, plead for more grace period
