Laid-off H-1B workers stare at a 60-day visa challenge

Friday's mass layoff at Twitter, and the ongoing job cuts at various US technology companies like Stripe etc., have come as a double blow to the terminated employees who are in the States on an H-1B visa. The clock is literally ticking for them to find another job in sixty days or face a likely deportation process.

- [e-mail]

Mumbai: Once laid off, an H-1B visa holder has a 60-day grace period to find another US job. This should be done under an H-1B transfer process, where the new employer does the sponsorship and relevant paperwork, or else the jobseeker will be deported from the US.

Served with pink slip, several H-1B visa holders are flocking social media-to express gratitude for what they had, and to reach out to the larger work community and their network for openings.

The stringent immigration policies are forcing many of them to make fervent appeals for a new job. "This is not easy to write, but here we go. I was amongst 50% of the employees affected due to layoffs at Twitter...I am actively looking for new opportunities in the 'Data and Analytics domain'. Layoff comes with a deadline for employees like me on an H-1B visa, and I have around 60-days to find a new role in the US," a data software engineer based in San Francisco wrote on LinkedIn. Similar posts are found across social media, including, ironically, on Twitter.