You Know What? You Are Fired!!!
This is many a times done in polite terminology, by saying, we will let you go
This scenario is common with Permanent Jobs i.e you are working for some software House or some IT dept of some Business . Everyone has heard Cisco, Intell, and almost all big companies doing this to their thousands of employees.
Just for your information, lets talk about how does it go. When you are H1b, your company has sponsored your visit and is responsible for your basic work model and So they are also responsible for doing termination process as per rules.
- Your company needs to provide you with return transport to original country, in our case India. Your family members may not be get any help with return fair.
- If you decide to remain in USA, then employer doesnt have any obligation.
- Employee cannot play around by asking for money and not using it for returning. Companies will make sure that money they pay is only for return transport.
- If employer doesnt help you with return fair. You can complain to INS. But for 800-1000 bucks of air ticket, its upto you to decide if you want to go to INS or state court.
- Employers are suppose to inform INS service center(center which approved your H1b petition) asap about employee's termination.
- It seems once employer notifies INS about your termination, it takes 2-4 months before your visa gets revoked.
- Employee should maintain proper record of payments done during termination and all the communication, because you might be eligible for getting payed for duration till your termination is notified. Employer needs to provide proof to labour that consultant was notified about his termination and cease in pay.
- After your job is terminated, the big confusion is whether you are "out of status" or "extended grace period" is available. This is different for every case. So best thing to do is, take some lawyers answer on this and find out the latest applicable rule in your case.
Did I forget to mention, in difficult times like this, Desi Consulting companies turns out to be Saviour. They do things which helps you to manage bad times. Of course everything depends on personal relation you have with your employer. Desi companies are run by Desi like you and me, and they can identify with our situation and do their best to help. At times they go out of their way to help.
I am writing this article while I saw one close friend's case. He is here with family working for one Microchip company in Bay area for last 6 years. He is in his final stage of his Green Card. i.e his date for final completion of whole long process is just 2 weeks later[people who are aware of the process, know 2 weeks of gap takes lot of time]. Unfortunately company was out of business since last 6 months, no pay since 3 months, and finally he is going to quit the job and join a new place. His Green card process will start from Zero now. Situation like these make you feel more secured to remain with decent desi consulting company.