COVID-19 lockdown impact: Around 200,000 H-1B workers in US could lose legal status by June

According to Jeremy Neufeld, an immigration policy analyst with the Washington DC, out of 250,000 guest workers who are trying to get a green card in the US, 200,000 are H-1B visa holders-who could lose their legal status by the end of June, reported Bloomberg.

Neufeld added that thousands more who are not seeking resident status may also be forced to return home.

H-1B visa holders are linked to a specific location and a company who hired the visa holder and is responsible for paying a specific amount to the employee.

About three-quarters of H-1B holders are working in the technology industry, and the number varies every year.

In the last two months, millions of Americans have lost their jobs but workers on visas are more susceptible than the native-born workers.

Reducing their wages or making them work from home violates visa requirements. Terminated H-1B workers have some option like 60-days to find another job, transfer to a different visa or return to their country. But now they are in a dilemma as they can't even get their visas renewed during the COVID-19 crisis.

Bloomberg quoted Doug Rand, who worked on technology and immigration policy as saying, “The visa crisis is causing a catastrophe at a human level and an economic level. H-1B workers often have families who also rely on their jobs for authorization to stay in the country, including children who may have spent their entire lives in the US. It's just a mess.”

A letter sent by TechNet, a lobbying group whose members include Apple, Amazon, Facebook, Google and Microsoft to the State and Homeland Security departments on April 17, has called for relief for foreign-born workers as the letter requested a delay in work authorization expiration dates until at least September 10.

"Without action, these issues will lead to hundreds of thousands of unfilled jobs and have profound negative economic effects," the letter reads

Alex Burgos, senior vice president of federal policy and government relations at TechNet said, “The tech industry is crucial to supporting offices working remotely, helping doctors provide telehealth services and keeping students learning at home”.

Burgos added, "We've seen the administration extend tax filing deadlines and similar flexibility in visa programs makes sense because no one here is at fault in any way."

But the letter is still waiting for the response from the Trump administration. On April 20, President Donald Trump tweeted that he planned a temporary ban on all immigration to protect American jobs. The impact of the tough stance taken by the Trump administration is apparent as the number of non-immigrant visas issued in 2019 declined for the fourth consecutive year, to 8.7 million from 10.9 million in 2015, according to the State Department.

The state department closed embassies and consulate operations in March, which left the visa holders at the risk of falling into illegal status. US Citizenship and Immigration Services In-person services, a unit of the Department of Homeland Security has also been suspended from March 18 until June 4 at the earliest.

"We have definitely felt the practical impact of processing delays," said Duolingo spokesman Sam Dalsimer, a company whose 250-person staffers are on H-1Bs or other visas,

He added, "There's also a psychological impact on employees whose futures and abilities to remain here are even more uncertain than ever."

Manasi Vasavada has less than three weeks left before she loses her legal right to be in the country. The dental practice in Passaic County, New Jersey, where Vasavada, 31, has worked for almost two years closed its doors in mid-March due to Covid-19. She has been on an unpaid leave of absence ever since.

Her husband Nandan Buch is working as a dentist and has been in the country on an H-1B visa that expires in June. They have been watching the days tick by with growing fear and anxiety.

There may soon come a point when the couple can't stay and can't return to India, their home country, due to its indefinitely closed borders. They also have a combined $520,000 in student loans from the advanced dental degrees they completed at US. universities, which would be nearly impossible to pay back on the salaries they would earn in India.

"Everything is really confusing and dark right now," Bllomberg quoted Vasavada as saying. "We don't know where we will end up", she added. Lakhs of others are facing the same predicament.