What Happens To H-1B Workers Post COVID-19?

The US Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has said that it will start accepting applications for extending the visas which are likely to expire. This is quite an important development for the Indian IT workers settled in the US. But what does this delay mean? What happens to the IT workers who are laid off?

To answer this questions, 
BOOM's Govindraj Ethiraj spoke to Siddharth Pai, Founder & Managing Partner, Siana Capital Management and Poorvi Chothani, Managing Partner, LawQuest.

'Amazon, Facebook, Google are at a less of a disadvantage than IT services companies like IBM or Accenture or Infosys. In an outsourced environment it is easier to let off people who are not a part of your payroll. So there is a waterfall effect that happens,' says Siddharth Pai, Founder & Managing Partner, Siana Capital Management.

'The top 10 visa applicants for H-1B visa for several years have been IT companies. They are the biggest consumers. This time in the online selection which is a new process on the H-1B programme 67.7% of registrations were Indian nationals and most are engaged by the Indian IT companies who are service providers and the difference between the service providers and someone like Facebook or Google is that these are not dependent on an end client for their work. They can use them for their in-house projects,' said Poorvi Chothani, Managing Partner, LawQuest.

Watch this episode of COVID-19 From The Frontlines to know more about the issue.