High-Tech H-1B Layoffs Need Not Result in a Trip Home
The made-up OPT program to the rescue
By David North on January 30, 2023
We have been reading about the extensive layoffs in high-tech industries; we have heard much gnashing of teeth about upsetting families and causing many H-1Bs to return, usually to India. We have read of multitudinous efforts by the Department of Homeland Security to ease the impact of forced departures for scores of thousands of H-1B workers.
The press, of course, bemoans the bad news for these alien families.
What is now clear, however, is that the U.S. immigration system has an existing solution to any potential relocation problem — no H-1B has to leave the country, and neither our government nor the Indian press has figured it out, or if they have, they are keeping it a secret.
That’s right — no lay-off of an H-1B or L-1 employee needs to lead to a flight home; people may have to make somewhat different arrangements, incomes may drop, but no one is being forced to leave.
The so-far hidden alternative to being forced to emigrate carries with it the letters OPT, standing for the Optional Practical Training program. It is available to all aliens now in the U.S. as either H-1Bs (high-tech workers) or L-1s (international corporate executives).
https://cis.org/North/HighTech-H1B-Layoffs-Need-Not-Result-Trip-Home
