White House petition seeks 180 days H-1B visa grace period

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The petition to help Indian professionals during COVID-19 crisis has a goal of 100,000 signatures.

As America imposes ever new travel restrictions to deal with the COVID-19 pandemic, workers and professionals from all walks of life are experiencing delays, job losses and assignment derails.

During these extraordinary times, many of those professionals who are in the US working on a visa are among the hardest hit.

There have been hundreds of cases of people on H-1B visa who are now in a limbo as their H-1B petitions have been denied or they have suffered a job loss.

Keeping in mind these extremely trying situations being faced by some on work visas currently, a new petition has been launched on the white House.

It requests the Congress to extend the H-1B grace period to 180 days on a temporary basis to help people from getting stranded or accumulating unlawful stay during the Coronavirus breakout.

RELATED LINK: “Temporarily extend the 60-Day H1B Visa Grace period to 180 Days”

Under current regulations, H-1B workers have a 60-day grace period of unemployment time during which they can stay in the US.

New Jersey based Dan Nandan, who runs Hire IT People Inc, started this petition as he felt that many on H-1B visas are facing extraordinary situations right now.

“Many H1Bs are now in a dire situation and many face lay-offs,” he said. “I am not sure how they are protected from termination, I guess they are not.”

“If they cannot find employment in 60 days, it helps in extension of time until the COVID vanishes. So, they can be here avoiding leaving the country in the current situation.”

Neha Shah, a member of an immigration related chat group says she has been seeing a lot of visa related hardships in the forums.

“Some of these people need to exit to ensure no unlawful stay in the US, but are helpless as their home countries are closing borders as a precaution to Coronavirus,” she said.

There are still others with spouses stranded in India who had visited a few weeks ago, when the situation was not bad and are now unable to travel back to the US now.

Within a few hours of its launch, more than 1,000 people signed the petition with a goal of 100,000 signatures.

“Most H-1B workers are from India and cannot travel home with children who are US citizens as many countries announced an entry ban, including India,” the petition says.

“We request the government to temporarily extend the 60-day grace period to 180 days and protect the H-1B workers under these difficult times.”

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