Extend H1B grace periods, Indian diaspora foundation urges US Prez Biden

With the job cuts in the tech companies due to the economic slowdown and the looming recession, the Foundation for India and Indian Diaspora Studies (FIIDS) has urged United States President Joe Biden to extend the H1B and L1/5 grace periods. An appeal to extend the H1B and L1/5 grace periods has also been extended to the members of the Congress and senate, and the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS).

Recently, among the major tech giants, Google and Microsoft had announced job cuts, leaving hundreds impacted. Indians were highly impacted as the tech industry is dominated by the Indian immigrants. The H1B visa holders, who were laid off, have to look for H1B sponsoring jobs in 60 days, else they would have to leave. This had a huge impact on the families of those who had their families to look after.

With this in mind, the FIIDS had made an appeal to the President of the United States, the secretary of Department of Homeland security, the members of congress and senate and the USCIS to consider how the layoffs would affect the families and extend the grace period. The FIIDS has demanded that the two months grace period be extended to six months and 10 days grace periods to at least two months.

Google's parent company Alphabet announced Friday it will cut about 12,000 jobs globally, citing a changing economic reality as it became the latest US tech giant to enact large-scale restructuring. The layoffs come a day after Microsoft said it would reduce staff numbers by 10,000 in the coming months, following similar cuts by Facebook owner Meta, Amazon and Twitter as the tech sector girds for economic downturn.

"Over the past two years we've seen periods of dramatic growth," Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai said, adding, “To match and fuel that growth, we hired for a different economic reality than the one we face today.”

(With agency inputs)