WASHINGTON - Laid-off US tech workers from abroad on employment-based visas are scrambling to find new jobs to avoid being forced to uproot their lives and leave the country.
More than 150,000 US-based tech jobs have disappeared in recent months, delivering an economic blow to Silicon Valley not seen the since the dot-com bubble collapsed in the early 2000s.
As the massive wave of redundancies spreads across US tech firms, many of those left jobless are here on H1-B or other visas pegged to their jobs, according to California congresswomen Anna Eshoo and Zoe Lofgren.
Eshoo and Lofgren wrote a letter urging US immigration authorities to at least double the 60-day period allowed foreign-born workers here on employment-based visas to find new jobs.
Without a new job at a company that can get them a visa, fired employees have to leave the country.
"They are freaking out beyond measure," said Seattle-based immigration attorney Tahmina Watson.
"They are absolutely in a bind because they don't know what they are going to do."
According to Eshoo and Lofgren, foreign-born workers make up nearly a quarter of the US science and tech workforce.
Often times, immigrant tech workers have settled down and started families in the United States, advocates told AFP.
"They go from being two-income households to no-income households with mortgages, marriages, car payments and children," Watson said.
"Sixty days is not enough time to wrap up your affairs; it is not enough time to find another job and then apply for another H1-B visa."
The Foundation for India and Indian Diaspora Studies launched a petition at Change.org calling on US President Joe Biden to extend the visa grace period to a full year on humanitarian grounds.
The petition had more than 2,300 signatures as of Wednesday.
"My ask here is to increase the grace period and let them figure it out," said foundation director Khanderao Kand.
The US economy stands to suffer if there is an exodus of immigrant tech talent, argue advocates.