"The law is that if you lose your job, you are out of status and you have to leave, unless you already have another visa application pending," said Greg Siskind, an immigration lawyer with Siskind, Susser, Haas and Devine in Memphis, Tennessee. Until 1998 the yearly quota of such H-1B workers was 65,000. That year, as the high technology field exploded, it was raised to 115,000. In 2000, with the Internet revolution roaring ahead, it went up to 195,000 for each of the next three years.

Companies like to employ such foreign workers because they tend to demand less than native citizens, said Mark Krikorian, executive director of the Center for Immigration Studies.

"We're talking about hundreds of thousands of people who are pliable and dependable employees desperate to get their Green Cards (permanent residency visas) and will work 18-hour days to stay here," he said.

Nobody knows how many of these workers have lost their jobsrecently or could lose them in the near future due to the Internet meltdown. But immigration experts believe the number could be quite substantial.

The Immigration and Nauralization Service is running 80 days behind in processing its case load and has no up-to-date figures. Additionally, many of these workers may try to stay in the United States illegally if they do get laid off.

INS spokeswoman Eyleen Schmidt said the agency was sensitive to the problem and might be inclined to look favorably on foreign workers who were abruptly terminated.

"If they can show extraordinary circumstances beyond their control that led them to be out of legal status, that would be taken into account if they found a new job and requested a renewal of their visas," she said.