‘I don’t think in months anymore… just counting the days’: H-1B anxiety grips Indian tech workers

By 2024, he had begun the green card process. The paperwork was underway. The future, while distant, felt structured. He bought a house in Dallas-Fort Worth, built credit history, started planning in years instead of visa cycles.

Then his work project ended.

The client backed out over unmet contractual terms. The company responded with layoffs across the team — he was among them.

“With that, my PERM (Program Electronic Review Management) application was terminated,” he said. “Just like that.”

For employment-based green cards, the PERM process is one of the first major steps, requiring an employer to sponsor the worker for permanent residency. But because his application had not yet reached the stage where an I-140 (Immigrant Petition for Alien Workers) petition was approved, the layoff effectively erased the years already spent in the process. If a new employer agrees to sponsor him, he will have to restart the green card process from scratch.

Living in limbo

In recent months, conversations around H-1B workers in the United States have increasingly been accompanied by concerns about mental health, isolation, and burnout. Reports of suicides involving Indian-origin tech workers and students alongside layoffs, visa uncertainty and mounting immigration pressures have triggered wider discussions within the immigrant community about the emotional cost of living under temporary status.

A recent Rest of Worldanalysis found 227 reported cases of suicides among Indian tech workers between 2017 and 2025, with work pressure, uncertainty and financial stress emerging repeatedly in reported accounts.

Immigration lawyers said laid-off workers often find themselves making life-altering decisions within weeks.

The tech professional, meanwhile, is weighing his options. If a new employer files an H-1B transfer before June 8, he can remain in the United States and begin working as soon as the petition is filed, even if it remains pending beyond the grace period. If the petition is approved, his stay continues uninterrupted. If it is denied, the job ends immediately, and so does his ability to remain.

“The filing has to happen before June 8,” he said. “That’s the difference between staying and leaving.”

He is trying to sell his house. “If the house doesn’t sell in time, I don’t know what I’ll do,” he said.

The uncertainty has seeped into ordinary decisions: Whether to renew a lease, ship belongings back to India, continue paying a mortgage on a house. His days are spent applying for jobs, speaking to real estate agents and checking immigration forums where laid-off H-1B workers compare timelines, transfer approvals, and denials.

One option is to apply for a change of status to a B-2 visitor visa — essentially asking for a temporary extension of stay to wrap up personal affairs. But that path is uncertain, and increasingly scrutinised.

He has been told that applying for B-2 requires building a case: documents showing ties to his home country, proof that the house is listed and actively being sold, records of buyer interest, financial statements, even evidence of future plans outside the United States.

“You have to prove you’re going to leave,” he said. “Even while you’re trying to stay just a little longer.”

A pending H-1B transfer, he has learned, would not automatically be cancelled by a B-2 application. But both could face Requests for Evidence. Both could be delayed or denied.

And if the B-2 is denied? “I have to leave,” he said.

Elsewhere, others are navigating different versions of the same uncertainty.

Sponsorship drying up

A biomedical engineer, in her 30s, working in surgical robotics described a similar situation. Currently employed under STEM OPT and involved in testing robots for FDA regulatory submissions, she said her employer had indicated they were unwilling to sponsor a H-1B visa.

“I still have nearly two years left on my STEM OPT,” she said. “I’m already authorised to work. But the problem is no longer whether I can do the job — it’s whether a company is willing to deal with sponsorship at all.”

Though her work authorisation remains valid for now, she said the absence of a long-term pathway hangs over every career decision.

“My employer basically said they don’t want to sponsor H-1Bs because they’re unfamiliar with the process,” she said. “So even though my work continues, my future here feels temporary all the time.”

The STEM OPT (Optional Practical Training) extension allows international students in the US on F-1 visas who graduate in eligible Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics fields to work for up to 24 additional months after their initial 12-month OPT period. It is widely used by Indian students to gain work experience and bridge the gap before securing longer-term visas such as the H-1B.

In another case, a Computer Science student from Drexel University in Philadelphia said a job offer from IBM was rescinded before it was formally signed. “The offer wasn’t rescinded because of my work or qualifications,” the student said. “It was because of visa status — even though I had three years of work authorisation left under STEM OPT.”

“What’s frustrating is that companies are rejecting candidates over sponsorship concerns that are years away,” the student added. “You work for years to get here, and then immigration status becomes the first thing people see.”

A lawyer’s advice

Immigration attorney Asel Williams, based in New York, said many H-1B workers misunderstand how narrow the timelines become after a layoff.

“If the H-1B transfer petition is properly filed before the grace period expires, the individual can generally continue to remain and work in the United States while the petition is pending,” Williams said. “But if the petition is denied, the employment must stop immediately, and the person should depart the US promptly.”

On the growing use of B-2 applications by laid-off H-1B workers trying to buy time, Williams said the USCIS (US Citizenship and Immigration Services) has been closely scrutinising such filings.

“I’m seeing Requests for Evidence issued on both B-2 change-of-status applications and subsequent H-1B transfers,” she said. “Applicants now need extensive documentation showing that their stay is genuinely temporary and that they maintain substantial ties abroad.”

That evidence, she said, can range from proof of attempts to sell property in the United States to financial records, family ties, foreign employment prospects, and proof of residence or assets in the home country.

Williams added that while filing for B-2 status does not automatically cancel a pending H-1B transfer, a denial can leave applicants with few options.

“If the B-2 is denied and there is no underlying valid status, the individual may need to depart the country,” she said.