Covid-19 lockdown: Over 2,00,000 H-1B visa holders fear losing legal right to stay in US

Their troubles may multiply if US government heeds Congressman Paul Gosar's request to suspend the foreign workers' programme, including H-1B Visa, in order to benefit 2.6 crore Americans who have lost their jobs due to coronavirus pandemic, media reports said.

H-1B is a temporary visa program designed for people with specialised skills who want to work in the US. The downside of this visa program is the short 60-day breather it allows the visa recipient to remain in the country without being paid or find a new job or move to another visa.

It is being argued that the move will help to promote the wages and work opportunities for the American workers, especially at a time when the unemployment is at an all-time high.

It is now over a month that offices and businesses across the US have put their shutters down, hurting the employment of thousands of H-1B visa holders in the country. One more month of closure and restrictions will take their legal right to stay in the country. They are staring at a situation when they can't stay in the US and can't go back to India, as the country has closed its borders indefinitely.

According to media reports, a human and economic crisis can emerge if Donald Trump administration does not announce an amendment to the H-1B visa norms.

Among the 2,50,000 workers seeking a green card, 2,00,000 are H-1B visa holders, said a Bloomberg report. Furloughing recipients, reducing their wages, and in some cases allowing them to work from home also violates visa requirements, the report added.

The Indian government has already requested the US government to extend the H-1B and other visas of the Indian citizens till the COVID-19 situation is over after reports appeared that the US government has asked the organisations to fire H-1B visa holders.