H1B visa holders have to find a job within a month after lay off or leave the country. Recently FBI arrested many overstayed H1B holders and departed them. It will impact their future H1B applications.
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The US immigration system is broken. It is easier and cheaper to cross over the border in the middle of the night when no-one is looking than what it is to legally migrate to the US. Families are stuck in H1-B renewal for years and years and can not obtain PR until an immigrant visa is available for them. In some cases, this is 20 years out meaning that you have to remain in non-immigrant status, legally, for the duration and in some cases the spouse or kids of the H1-B beneficiary is unable to work.
I myself obtained citizenship a few years ago and the entire process took about 10 years for me from Visa to Passport - and this is on the shorter timescale.
Back in the olden days, this was not a problem as the number of people in the queue was much shorter. Now, it's a very big issue.
In some cases, it's faster and easier to go to Canada, get Canadian citizenship and then come to the US as a Canadian.
I feel for anyone that is stuck on H1/L1 at VMware right now.
As a US citizen, Reading these sounds ridiculous. 60 days?! That's nothing and in this job market totally unrealistic. The US needs to seriously reconsider its policies when it comes to H1B visa holders. The tech and other industries are heavily reliant on new immigrants. Anyone who makes such a huge effort to immigrate to another country probably has a strong work ethic and to give them just 60 days to try and land another job seems insane. Instead, new means to ensure these people stay should be granted. Like a extension upon check in or something. Good luck to all of you who are H1Bs. We need people just like you.
@1qpj+1nYPmX9s - if you want to slow roll it, then that's up to you. But many H1Bs and other immigrants see their immigration to the United States as a once in a lifetime opportunity to better their lives. They don't want to go back to the countries and societies they came from. For them, all of this matters much more than just the prospect.of being temporarily unemployed.
So, my message to them is: earn it and work harder and smarter. To everybody else: why not pack up and go back home? If being in the US is not worth the struggle, just call it.
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Couple of things from a former H1B holder:
the United States or your employer owe you nothing. You are a guest in this country, which welcomes you and even allows you to apply for permanent residency and eventual citizenship.
don't f*ck up. Overstaying your Visa is not a small thing and you will and should get kicked out for that.
work hard. Work harder and smarter than any of your citizen or greencard holding colleagues. Be truly more valuable. Hustle. The reward of eventual citizenship is worth it. But don't ever take anything for granted. You don't deserve special treatment because being an immigrant is hard and the consequences of losing your immigration status along with your job make you deserving of anybody's empathy. You do deserve special treatment for outstanding performance.
In other words... earn it.
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Yeah, this person thinks he had "earned" it now that he's a green card holder, but I have another approach towards this, you can try hard and do your best but don't lose sleep over not making it here, good discipline and faith will take a person a long way. Life just doesn't end here and it's just too short to worry about a lot of things. Dont over exert and age faster because there is so much uncertainty here - I have seen a ton of people who wanted to do things on their terms and didn't bother that they got laid off and couldn't find a job.
They just didn't agree to get burnt out and I see them thriving where they went, also they returned back to the US once things became clear. Live another day to get a fighting chance, and don't overstress and hurt your health, nothing matters more than your health and your loved ones.
You don't have to "earn it', you just need to try your best and find happiness in everything you do.
Post from TheLayoff.com
Also, the grace period is 2 months, just ensure that "grace period" starts - in a case when the employer notifies you of an impending layoff but keeps you on the payroll for 2 months, it may be interpreted that the grace period starts at the end of those 2 months, but again each lawyer interprets that differently and I have a friend who had stayed 4 months ( 2 months on the payroll and 2 months for grace period ) post layoff and had successfully transferred the H1 onto a new employer with no issues.
Departed them ? You speak as if they were sent to heaven straight up, never heard of FBI entering immigration's enforcement force. Who wrote this cr-p ?
Having said that, it's always advisable to follow rules in a country built on laws.
Legal H-B become stateless but documented, FBI has all the info, they can arrest you easily, if you crossed the border illegally they can’t do anything, you are undocumented. In this country easy to survive as illegal undocumented, but difficult to leave as documented. Hope it clears you all your doubt, why FBI arrest legal documented workers and depart them.
Is the flight home business class, FBI puts you in?
Same here , FBI came in lamborghini and took them to airport and book a business class ticket and told them to come back as they miss us
Couple of things from a former H1B holder:
- the United States or your employer owe you nothing. You are a guest in this country, which welcomes you and even allows you to apply for permanent residency and eventual citizenship.
- don't f*ck up. Overstaying your Visa is not a small thing and you will and should get kicked out for that.
- work hard. Work harder and smarter than any of your citizen or greencard holding colleagues. Be truly more valuable. Hustle. The reward of eventual citizenship is worth it. But don't ever take anything for granted. You don't deserve special treatment because being an immigrant is hard and the consequences of losing your immigration status along with your job make you deserving of anybody's empathy. You do deserve special treatment for outstanding performance.
In other words... earn it.
H1B visa holders have 60 days grace period. That is what I see on USCIS website for latest guidance. Here is the link - https://www.uscis.gov/newsroom/alerts/options-for-nonimmigrant-workers-following-termination-of-employment. I have been on H1B before becoming a citizen. Please help your colleagues if you can. Don’t create unnecessary panic. These are stressful times. Also FBI has better things to do than catching h1b violators. Peace.
Yep. Happened to me - almost ... I literally secured a written agreement from another company that was happy to sponsor me the day the FBI showed up. I still had to go back but they didn't ban me and I was able to travel back a few months later. But it was made clear to me that this is an exception as these things overlapped literally for hours only.
Thankfully I now have a green card (ironically won it two years later) so I am not on H1B but I see some H1B colleagues that take the lazy / easy approach - and that I cannot get especially that some of them have literally nothing in their home land.
One of my friends couldn’t find a job, overstayed for a week, FBI took him, he was not able to sell his home, they put him on the flight straight.