Laid-off foreign workers at U.S. technology companies, whose visas depend on their employment, are struggling to find work to avoid being forced to leave the country.

More than 150,000 U.S. jobs have disappeared in recent months, dealing an economic blow to Silicon Valley not seen since the tech bubble that burst in the early 2000s.

As the massive wave of layoffs spreads among American tech companies, many of those who lost their jobs remain in the country on H1-B or other visas that depend on their jobs, according to California congresswomen Anna Eshoo and Zoe Lofgren.

Both men wrote a letter urging U.S. immigration authorities to at least double the 60-day period that allows foreign workers holding work visas to get new jobs.

Without a new job in a company that is responsible for the visa, those laid off will have to leave the country.

“They are completely panicked,” reported Tahmina Watson, an immigration lawyer in Seattle (northwest). "They're at an absolute crossroads because they don't know what they're going to do."

According to Eshoo and Lofgren, foreign workers make up almost a quarter of the workforce in the science and technology sector in the US.

Tech workers have often settled and started families in the US, their supporters explained to AFP.

They went from two-income families to no-income families, with mortgages, marriages, car payments and kids," recalls Watson. "Sixty days is not enough time to figure things out; is not enough time to find another job and then apply for another H1-B visa.”

The Foundation for India and Indian Diaspora Studies published a petition on the Change.org portal asking American President Joe Biden to extend the visa grace period by one year for humanitarian reasons. The petition has gathered more than 2,300 signatures as of Wednesday.