LEH employees on H1B or L1 visas

What happens now?

Oh crap… H1Bs are in a real soup. Technically, they would be out of status as soon as they get their termination letters. They are then required to leave the U.S. immediately. Unfortunately, INS/DHS have not defined what “immediately” is. I know cases where it was interpreted to be 2 weeks. BTW, the guys at www.immigration.com are very helpful and they also have a very good faq.

I also hear 2 weeks

I foresee an influx of cab drivers in NYC. Seriously though I hear that the company has tp pay them for their air fare back home.

needhelp Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > I foresee an influx of cab drivers in NYC. > > Seriously though I hear that the company has tp > pay them for their air fare back home. No. I was at a Fortune 500 telecom company in 2002 when I had to let go of 4 H1Bs (my entire team of 19 except for 3 was wiped out). We were not required to pay for the return trip. However, a company may decide to do this as a matter of goodwill. In our case, even managerial ranks were so decimated that there was no one there to even consider things like goodwill. Darn this feels like a deja vu.

People who were permanent with Lehman and were on their H1-B. GOD SAVE THEM. They have to go back to India immediately. Where ‘immediate’ means max of 1 month else they will be out of status and they will be illegal in this country and would be deported. I was consulting for Lehman Brothers past 2 years but my H1-B was with some other vendor. So I still have not lost my status. GOD Plzz save us!

“pay for air trip home” ?! lol yeah, add that to the general unsecured claim no. 67342 good one…air trip…haha right now, i’d be worried about getting paid for the days worked since the last paycheck

When I had a H1-B visa the interpretation was that termination meant you were IMMEDIATELY out of status, and that you had to leave the country on the same day. Sounds ridiculous but I saw interviews with immigration officers saying that this was the interpretation since nothing in the law says anything about 2 weeks or 1 month “grace period” in this case. I got laid off by Lehman back in May and thank god I already received everything they owed me.

yeah, unfortunately a friend of mine is also in lehman with a visa and he and his whole family will have to leave and given the job market, he will not be able to find another job in time … this really sucks. there is no safety net once this happens and many lives are thrown in the wind… although the indian economy is better than this one, right?

@ The Edge, i hear otherwise buddy, it’s probably better than the americas but it’s not rosy there either. unless a person wants to work BO. maybe singapore is a safe haven?

I found an article about H-1B visas. Hopefully it will point you in the right direction. H-1B visa termination According to current law, H-1B workers must leave the US within ten days of the expiration of their visas. A laid-off H1-B worker can apply for a grace period beyond the 10 days. This is granted on a case-by-case basis, and usually for a very short amount of time. If you are laid-off, the employer is supposed to pay airfare for your journey back home. If you are in a position to find another employer within ten days who can file for a fresh H1-B, you and your dependents can legally stay in the US. But such situations are rare. Finding another job and transferring the H-1B visa in a month’s time is next to impossible. Most likely, you’ll have to leave the US, apply for a new H-1B and then return. Companies prefer a US citisen or a Green Card holder who can start working immediately as opposed to waiting four months for the USCIS to clear an H-1B visa worker. The problem does not end there. Employers are not obliged to provide any prior notice before sacking you. If you fall victim to this, you may have to go to a ‘body-shopper’ to stay in the US. Body-shoppers employ laid-off people and file for their visas with USCIS to ensure that the workers maintain legal status in the US. They then sub-contract the workers out to other tech-companies, while taking 10-20 per cent of their salary. This is a last resort. In cases where both husband and wife are working and one of them is fired, he or she can ‘stay legal’ by applying for an H-4 dependent visa, assuming that the other spouse continues on his or her H-1B. http://www.rediff.com/getahead/2007/jul/11abr1.htm

Edgy, tell us about your friend and how to reach you/him. There are quite a few reading these boards. You never know what can come out of it.