​​​Like millions of people in the United States, Sudip Upadhyay was laid off in March, as the economic fallout of the coronavirus pandemic became apparent. Now, if he doesn’t find an employer who hires him and petitions for his work visa within the next 50 days, he may also lose his legal status.

“If everything ends like this, then that American Dream was not for me,” he said.

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Upadhyay came to the United States from Mumbai, India, in 2013 to attend graduate school at Southern Methodist University in Dallas. After obtaining his master's degree in telecommunication and networking, he worked with tech companies in Texas, Illinois and, most recently, New York.

His most recent work authorization came from the H-1B specialty visa, granted to foreign guest workers who have at least a four-year college degree. This visa program is commonly associated with the information technology sector, but it is also used to employ workers in health care, education, academia and marketing, among other fields. Each year, 65,000 H-1B visas are given out, a cap set by Congress. When the number of applications exceeds that cap, as it has done every year since 2004, the ones ultimately processed are selected through a lottery.