There are numerous visa programs that specifically help individuals with marketable job skills enter the country. There are H, L and O visas, among others, that can help someone turn a successful career into an immigration opportunity. Some skilled workers enter the country to accept a new offer of employment with a domestic company. Others secure an internal transfer to their employer’s facilities in the United States.
Workers who have achieved career success can enter the United States as non-immigrant workers with employment visas. They can also bring spouses and unmarried children under the age of 21 with them in many cases. If you have an employment visa and currently live in the United States, losing your job will be a major hurdle to overcome.
Will you automatically face removal from the country if you lose your job as an immigrant with a work visa?
You have an opportunity to find new work
The United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) has the difficult task of enforcing immigration rules. Sometimes, the USCIS must remove workers who have done nothing wrong but who no longer have the job that secured their entry into the United States. Such removals can be very destabilizing for the worker involved and their family members. It also means that the country loses a skilled or educated professional who was helping grow the domestic economy.
The good news for someone recently terminated as an immigrant is that removal is not immediate or automatic. There are policies in place to help keep skilled immigrants in the country even if they lose the job associated with their visas. You can potentially find another job that would allow you to stay in the country and continue supporting your family. The USCIS gives a 60-day grace period to skilled professionals in the country on a work visa suddenly faced with the loss of their jobs.
If you find additional work within those 60 days or successfully qualify for a different visa program, you won’t have to worry about relocating your family much sooner than originally planned. Learning more about the rules for different immigration programs will help those who live in the United States temporarily with a temporary work visa.