Foreign professionals in U.S. fret as layoffs mount
The loss of a job could mean an unscheduled trip home for those in the country on work visas or seeking green cards.
For foreign professionals in the United States, the rising unemployment rate is especially daunting.
Laid-off foreign workers are scrambling for temporary visas and seeking advice from immigration attorneys about how long they can legally stay in the country while hunting for jobs.
Even some foreigners here on visas or work permits are switching employers, fearing that an unstable job during a recession could lead to a one-way ticket home or end their chance of getting a green card.
Caron Traub of South Africa panicked after losing her job as a business development manager for an envelope manufacturer. With plans for an April wedding in Atlanta to her Canadian fiance, who has a green card, Traub, 38, worried that she could be forced to leave the country before then and be unable to get back in.
"It's very scary stuff," said Traub, who applied for a temporary visa to stay in the country legally and look for a job.
An undetermined number of foreign workers have been casualties of the recession, which pushed the nationwide jobless rate to 6.7% in November, a 15-year high. Economists expect unemployment to continue to climb through much of 2009 and could surpass 8%.
Foreign residents with visas that authorize them to work in the U.S. can qualify for unemployment benefits if they meet the requirements of the state in which they file, according to the Labor Department.
Nearly half a million foreign professionals are working in the country on visas, known as H-1Bs, or have applied for green cards with support from their employers, said Stuart Anderson, executive director of the National Foundation for American Policy, a research group in Arlington, Va. Many came to the U.S. to pursue graduate degrees and have lived and worked here for years.
Those who lose their jobs in the downturn may head home or move to countries that have more lenient immigration rules. That could drive much-needed innovation in technology and engineering overseas in the years ahead, Anderson said.
"What you may find is there are people who could be future entrepreneurs in the United States who end up starting these companies in other countries," he said.
Companies are required to notify the U.S. immigration agency, Immigration and Customs Enforcement, when a visa holder stops working for them, but the government does not track how many skilled professionals leave their jobs because of layoffs, said Bill Wright, an agency spokesman. There are many reasons a foreign worker might leave a company in good economic times as well as bad -- for example, to take a better job, he said.
