由于冠状病毒破坏经济，在美国持有H-1B签证的印度人面临裁员
来源: 赫芬顿邮报| 2020年4月7日
原创新闻链接:
http://www.huffingtonpost.in/entry/indian-h1b-layoffs-us-economy-coronavirus_in_5e8c371ac5b6e1d10a694bf2
波士顿, 马萨诸塞州——Divyanshu Pandey, 杜克大学的毕业生, 他于2019年9月获得了H-1B签证, and was working as a business operations analyst at a tech and rental industry startup in Dallas, 德州, when he was laid off a week ago due to the sudden economic slowdown prompted by the global novel coronavirus pandemic.
“虽然这对我来说很难, 如果我处在公司的位置, 我也会这么做,潘迪说, whose company was in the middle of a Series A funding round when the pandemic hit America.
Since early March, unemployment claims in the United States have jumped by a whopping 3,000%. 就在上周，6.600万人申请失业救济, 根据国家劳动统计局公布的数据. Nobel Prize-winning economist Paul Krugman predicts that unemployment could rise further to a record-breaking 20% in the next two weeks.
随着美国经济放缓, H-1B visa holders — three fourths of whom are 印度n — are faced with the prospect of losing their jobs and health insurance amidst a raging pandemic. 截至目前, 美国是世界上冠状病毒病例最多的国家, 超过360人,000例确诊感染，近11例,根据约翰·霍普金斯大学汇编的数据，这一数字达到了5000人.
下岗工人, who will no longer be able to access the health insurance provided by their employers, 现在，他们只有60天的时间找到一份类似的全职工作，否则就离开这个国家.
Dan Nandan是Hire IT People公司的首席执行官., 新泽西的一家招聘公司, estimates that over 20-25% of H-1B employees could lose their jobs and be forced to return home in the coming weeks as the crisis worsens. 就在过去的两周, Nandan has received 150 phone calls and resumes of people with H-1B visas looking for a new job. 而一个月前只有2-3个电话.
“American companies can put the US citizens on furlough (temporary unpaid leave or reduced hours) but with H-1B workers, they have to ensure that they are on the payroll for all of the 40 hours and also that they are paid the same amount and nothing less,凯文·平托说, 来自孟买的产品经理, 印度, who was one of the many international employees who were let go two weeks ago from a mid-sized tech company in 波士顿, 麻萨诸塞州, 就在他结束在这家公司两年工作的前一天. “It is convenient for companies to put international students and people with H-1Bs aside.”
印度人往往是H-1B签证计划的最大受益者. 根据美国移民局的数据，今年所有H-1B签证申请者中有三分之二是印度人.S. 美国公民及移民服务局(USCIS). The H-1B programme is a non-immigrant work permit that allows US employers to hire foreign workers in specialist occupations. Tech giants such as Amazon, Microsoft and Google are often the top H1-B visa recipients.
美国科技工人, 这是一个代表美国科技工作者的非营利机构, has already asked President Donald Trump to suspend the H1-B visa programme for this year given the rapidly rising unemployment. 在特朗普政府执政期间，H-1B签证的拒签率已经飙升, 从2015年的6%上升到2019年的21%, 根据美国国家政策基金会的数据. 这包括新就业和“持续”就业. The denial rate for those continuing employment—which includes extension for employees in the same company or change/transfer of employers—is now four times higher than it was in 2015.
“这些不仅仅是移民, 这些是医生和护士治疗没有个人防护装备的病人, these are software engineers who are enabling banks to function and building softwares that are allowing people to work from home and the economy to run, 这些研究人员正在研究一种治疗方法,阿曼·卡普尔说, 移民之声的主席, 这是一家致力于印度移民问题的非营利组织. “想象一下，如果1.5万名印度医生不得不突然离开这个国家.”
Kapoor sees this new wave of H-1B layoffs as a symptom of a greater immigration problem where it would take high-skill 印度n immigrants over 60 years to receive lawful permanent residence in the US—giving ample time for their employers to make cuts or for the economic situation to change. 公共政策智库卡托研究所估计大约有200人,000名印度人可能在等待绿卡的过程中老死.
失业和60天的时钟
Losing a job on an H-1B visa can be devastating: visa holders are ineligible for unemployment benefits because accessing these is contingent on the employee being eligible for future employment. They must either find a similar full-time job with the same pay-scale in the next 60 days or leave the country.
Unemployed H-1B holders will also lose the health insurance provided by their employers at a time when hospitalisation for COVID-19, 由冠状病毒引起的疾病, 可能高达72美元,根据《365手机版》的估计，有1000人. H-1B签证持有者也没有资格享受医疗补助, the federal government programme that provides health coverage to low-asset people.
Pandey, 杜克大学的毕业生被解雇了, is worried that transferring his H-1B status to another company in the 60-days grace period would prove incredibly difficult, 考虑到招聘冻结.
“即使我找到一家愿意雇佣我的公司, 光是招聘和雇佣过程就可能需要四周的时间,他说.
Hire IT People的Dan Nandan在白宫的请愿书, pushing to extend the grace period to 180 days to allow the employees a better chance at finding another job, 吸引了近45人,到目前为止，已有1000个签名. 到2020年4月18日，它需要10万份，才能得到白宫的回应.
“Most H1B workers are from 印度 and cannot travel home with children who are U.S Citizens as many nations announced an entry ban, including 印度,” the petition stated.
到目前为止, both Kevin Pinto and Divyanshu Pandey cannot return home as 印度 has declared a ban on all international flights (except cargo) until April 14, 2020. If the travel bans are extended, Pinto and Pandey could find themselves overstaying their visas.
4月2日, 2020, 印度总领事馆, 纽约, released a travel advisory stating that there are no evacuation flights to take 印度n citizens back to 印度 as of now.
“You have to understand that it is not a problem that can be solved by evacuation. 你能疏散多少人? 人数以十万计, 如果不是数百万的话,” said the Consul General Sandeep Chakravorty in a Facebook live interview with ITV Gold. “其次，你会优先考虑谁? 这里有各种各样的人:有学生, 有游客, there are elderly and sick people who came from 印度 to spend time with their families.”
到目前为止, there is little clarity by the USCIS on the subject of visa expirations. 几天前, a senior official from the Department of 首页land Security had stated that people can apply for their visa extensions to the USCIS and expect that their request is “favorably received by USCIS” if an extension is requested and flights to their country are not operational. 如果航班可用，申请人的签证期限即将结束, 预计他们将返回家园, 这位官员补充说.
The author is an 印度n-origin freelance journalist and researcher currently based in 波士顿.
