The US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) has allowed people of B-1 or B-2 status to apply for jobs and appear for interviews in the US.
As per the tweets of USCIS, those on a business or tourist visa can seek employment in the country, but employers who engage them should ensure that they change their visa status from B-1 or B-2 to an employment-authorised one before they join work.
In case their request for change of status is not approved, they will have to leave the US. They cannot begin working until they obtain an approved employment-authorised classification.
The USCIS has also clarified that for non-immigrant workers who are laid off, the 60-day grace period begins after termination of employment, that is, the last day for which they have been paid salary.
They can get stay authorisation by applying for change of non-immigrant status, or applying for status adjustment or even apply for a “compelling circumstances” employment-authorisation document within the 60-day period. They can even benefit from a non-frivolous petition to change employer.
If any one of these applications are processed and give a positive result within 60 days, the non-immigrants can stay for over 60 days even if they lose their earlier non-immigrant status.
However, if no action is taken by a non-immigrant worker within the grace period, then he or she will need to leave the country along with family/dependants if any once their authorised stay period ends, whichever happens earlier.
