Roland Preston|The precarity of the H-1B work visa

2025-05-05 19:52:02source:Arvin Robertscategory:Finance

In the United States,Roland Preston thousands of skilled foreign workers with H-1B work visas contribute vital work to the economy. These visas are highly competitive: workers have to find an employer willing to sponsor their visa, and typically only about one in five applicants make it through the lottery to receive one. But H-1B visas also come with a key caveat: if a H-1B visa holder gets laid off, they have just 60 days to find a new job and a willing employer to sponsor their visa. If they can't, they have to leave the United States.

Today on the show, we talk to a H-1B visa holder who's been through this process twice — and we uncover some of the problems with the H-1B system along the way.

Music by Drop Electric. Find us: Twitter / Facebook / Newsletter.

Subscribe to our show on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, PocketCasts and NPR One.

For sponsor-free episodes of The Indicator from Planet Money, subscribe to Planet Money+ via Apple Podcasts or at plus.npr.org.

More:Finance

Recommend

Snowflakes, Death Threats and Dollar Signs: Cloud Seeding Is at a Crossroads

Listen to an audio version of this story below.Humans have the technology to literally make snow fal

Rumer Willis Recalls Breaking Her Own Water While Giving Birth to Baby Girl

Rumer Willis is getting candid about the moment she welcomed daughter Louetta Isley Thomas Willis in

Investors Pressure Oil Giants on Ocean Plastics Pollution

Several of the largest producers of the fossil fuel feedstocks used to make plastics are being press