Over 200,000 H-1B visa workers could lose legal status by June

[90DayFinancier 910]

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.

Vasavada is in the country on an H-1B visa, a temporary visa program designed for people with specialized skills. H-1B recipients can only remain in the country legally for 60 days without being paid. Her husband Nandan Buch, also a dentist, is in the country on an H-1B visa that expires in June. They have been watching the days tick by with growing fear.

There may soon come a point when the couple can’t stay and can’t go: India, their home country, has closed its borders indefinitely. They also have a combined $520,000 in student loans from the advanced dental degrees they completed at U.S. universities, which would be nearly impossible to pay back on the salaries they would earn in India. The stress has caused Buch, also 31, to start losing his hair. Neither of them is sleeping well. “Everything is really confusing and dark right now,” said Vasavada. “We don’t know where we will end up.”

https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/markets/over-200000-h-1b-workers-could-lose-legal-status-by-june/ar-BB13jvPS?li=BBnbfcL

[databit 328]

"The companies facing the hardest decisions, though, are those reducing staff in response to the pandemic. Some are choosing to furlough U.S.-born workers and fire foreign employees whose visas require them to be paid. Others are choosing to keep H-1B workers on staff to maintain their legal status, while firing U.S. workers."

 

Such actions are unlikely to elicit sympathy.

[Boiler 45,486]

Similar sort of deal a couple of years ago near me, the ski season was terrible due to lack of snow, the resorts employ a lot of H2b's and J1's, now I understand when things slowed it is logical to lay off the local staff first because once the seasonal staff have gone they are not coming back realistically, still seemed odd.

[Boiler 45,486]

Question, H1b is a temp work visa good for 6 years max, so who lent them the money and how did they expect to pay it back?

[Sparkle Sparkle 914]

Hard times😌

[millefleur 5,046]

10 hours ago, Boiler said:

Question, H1b is a temp work visa good for 6 years max, so who lent them the money and how did they expect to pay it back?

I know someone here on an H1B who did a Masters and has tons of student loan debt. It's a mystery, could it really be that the banks just aren't aware? Or maybe they assume all H1B's will eventually get a GC.

[Boiler 45,486]

8 hours ago, millefleur said:

I know someone here on an H1B who did a Masters and has tons of student loan debt. It's a mystery, could it really be that the banks just aren't aware? Or maybe they assume all H1B's will eventually get a GC.

I always assumed that you would get student loans from your home country. By no means do all H1b's get GC's.

[millefleur 5,046]

49 minutes ago, Boiler said:

I always assumed that you would get student loans from your home country. By no means do all H1b's get GC's.

Nope, at least with the person I know of,  they're from Ukraine but got all their student loans here at US banks. Student loans don't even exist in a lot of other countries.

[Boiler 45,486]

26 minutes ago, millefleur said:

Nope, at least with the person I know of,  they're from Ukraine but got all their student loans here at US banks. Student loans don't even exist in a lot of other countries.

Wonder how that happens, seems a very high risk scenario.

[millefleur 5,046]

5 minutes ago, Boiler said:

Wonder how that happens, seems a very high risk scenario.

I was also surprized. It would make sense if it required a US person co-signer, but apparently there are some which don't even require that.