I am not an immigrant myself, but I worked with many in the mid 2000s. My experience was that direct hire H1Bs did fine. The company is already shelling out lawyer fees for you, so presumably you're important enough for them to hang onto unless the situation is dire.
The company I worked for did also have H1B contractors whose contracts were terminated and some of those people left the country.
If you are on H1 then once you lose your job you'll be immediately out of status. Now being out of status is not a very big deal, but it does mean you'll need to find a new employer willing to sponsor you as soon as possible. USCIS is generally forgiving if your out of status period is not too long (they might require you to leave and then re-enter the country to get back to status though). Also living out of status is not fun - in addition to loss of income you'll have difficulty with things like renewing driver license or traveling out of country.
This is not correct. If you leave/lose your job, you have a 60-day grace period where you're not considered out of status. You need to find a new employer willing to petition a new I-129 for you.
Please check the specifics with a lawyer. Immigrations laws keep changing in very subtle ways.
As far as I'm aware, that is only true for L1, not H1B, which has a 60 days grace period. I don't know how it affects folks with AOS to an I-485, though.
L1 - if you lose your job and you have no other status (ie have not filed for green card or have your H1B), that's it. You have to leave within 60 days and you cannot work at another company in the US.
H1B - you can switch to a new company and they port your H1B with USCIS. Otherwise, 60 day grace period to leave.
Adjustment of Status to 485 - if it has been pending with USCIS for more than 180 days & you have your EAD, you can port to another company under the AC-21 act.
I was on H-1 in 2002 and lost my job. I was in the US for almost a year before I found something again . There was no problem for me. But things may be different now. I am also from Germany which makes things a little easier compared to what I hear from people from India or China.
My understanding (I’m a former H1B myself) is that if you lose your current job and sponsor you have some time (don’t remember exactly how many months) to find a new sponsor otherwise you need to leave. Didn’t happen with me, but I had a couple of coworkers that came to work for the same company and were let go and had to leave the country because they didn’t find another sponsor.
