H1B Visa Holders Stuck in India Plan Charter Planes to USA for $900,000 per Flight, So They Can Save Their Jobs

Home is where the heart is. Saying ‘Home is where the sustenance is’ is more appropriate in unprecedented times when fears of losing jobs and the visa status are looming large for a sizeable number of H1B visa holders who are currently stuck amid the lockdown in India. They have been interminably waiting, with their fingers crossed, for the lockdown to be lifted and international flights to be resumed.

But it seems that there is yet no hearing on the plight of H1B visa holders in the court of the Almighty, as India further extended the lockdown until May 17 in all COVID19 red zones including major cities with the continued restrictions on international travel.

An Atlanta-based NRI family of three members, including an H1B professional, his wife and a 3-year-old daughter, is stuck in India for the most obvious reason – travel restrictions. They are on the verge of losing the legal status in the United States due to the inevitable expiration of H1B visa in June 2020. They have to return to the US before or on June 6. But how? The H1B visa member of the family is not allowed to work remotely, so he has been on unpaid leave to this day.

Nitin Kaushik (name changed) on H1B visa, who came to visit his parents in India and got stuck amid the lockdown, has lost his job in the USA. His dependent wife and kid are in New Jersey and paying the bills from the depleting family savings. He needs to travel back to the US and get a job before his legal status expires in June 2020.

More than 200,000 H1B workers are facing the prospect of losing legal status by the end of June 2020, according to immigration policy analysts.

With the further extension of lockdown in India overshadowing chances for resumption of travel between India and USA, the H1B workers who are stuck in India have started pulling out all the stops to go back to the US and save their jobs or legal status. The plan that they are putting together is to charter a plane to fly back to the US. A charter flight from India to the US will cost them $900,000 (which equals to nearly 7 crore rupees).

An H1B visa professional, who is currently in Hyderabad, got the quote for a charter flight from a California-based company. Hundreds of H1B visa holders stuck across India responded to his social media posts seeking to full up a Boeing 767 with 278 seats. Some of them have been working from India, but they are not sure whether they will be allowed to continue working remotely.

They were not eligible for repatriation flights that the US government arranged for American citizens stranded in India. They have no way other than a charter flight to exit India and enter the US amid the continued travel restrictions. But there is yet no permission for charter flights. The government of India should come to their rescue and coordinate with the US State of Department to find a way out. If Indian government can plan to arrange repatriation flights for Indians stranded in the USA and other countries, why not operate direct Air India flights to the US where there is sustenance for H1B visa holders who are stuck in India?

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