Infosys Books Entire Flight To Bring Back 206 Employees, Families From US To India; Find Out Why?

In a move that has won hearts all around, and brought good karma, Infosys booked an entire flight to bring back stranded employees and their family members from the US to India.

Why did Infosys have to do this?

Infosys Booked Entire Flight From Employees

On Sunday, Infosys booked an entire flight, also called a chartered flight to bring back 76 employees, and their family members from US to India.

Total, there were 206 people in that chartered flight.

The chartered flight belonged to Qatar Airways and was booked from San Francisco to Bengaluru, which landed on Monday morning.

While some of these employees were on H1B visa, rest of them were on L1 visa.

Infosys associate vice-president Sanjeev Bode said, “Some of the Infosys employees were stranded in the US because of their visa expiration. All international flights were suspended because of the pandemic. Infosys came to their rescue. The company booked a chartered flight exclusively for over 200 employees and families from the US to India. At the time of writing, the flight has landed safely in Bengaluru, bringing an end to weeks of dilemma related to the uncertain situation.”

This was posted on his Linkedin profile.

Why Infosys Had To Book A Full Flight?

The employees which were brought back to India from the US had their temporary work visa expired, or were about to expire.

And since all international flights between US and India are suspended, there was no way they could have returned.

Besides, since coronavirus pandemic is spreading fast in the US, they have suspended all H1B visa, and also there is no clarity on the renewal of these visas in near future.

Hence, those who are already on the H1B visa and other temporary visas, they can continue working, but no new H1B visa holder can enter US till 2020 end, and future is uncertain for those whose work visa is getting expired or has already expired.

Neither they can work in the US, nor they can come back, since international flights are suspended.

An employees is able to work for 6 years with H1B work visa in the US, and for 5 years under L1 visa, which is for inter-company transfers.

Infosys has certainly won hearts here, but their kind gesture.