Exodus Of H-1B Workers From The USA?

Priya is employed in a tech startup in the USA and is an H-1B visa holder. These two reasons are enough for anyone to be assured about job security in the US. But Priya was not able to sleep for the past few weeks due to anxiety. She has a year-old daughter and her husband holds an H-1B visa as well.

"I wake up sweating thinking when we will have to leave the country and If both of us lose, we will just have to pack up and go home," said Priya, fearing that her company, like many others in the USA, may get rid of H-1B workers.

An industry source estimated that close to 20-30 % of H-1B and H4 visa holders may be forced to return home in the next 5-7 months.

In the US, there are over 3 lakhs H-1B visa holders. Indian tech companies have been one of the biggest beneficiaries of an H-1B visa. For Indians, the visa is a passport to get PR and it would not be too much of a stretch to say it has attracted many of them to the IT field. However, the grand American dream is once again staring at uncertainty, now due to the COVID-19 outbreak.

The novel coronavirus outbreak in January, that intensified in March, had a huge impact across sectors. The US has close to 2.77 lakh COVID-19 positive cases.