US to revoke work permit for H4 visa holders in 3 months
The Trump administration on Saturday told a federal court that its decision to revoke work permits to H4 visas holders, who are primarily spouses of H1B foreign guest workers, is expected within the next three months.
The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) in its latest court filing on Saturday told the US District Court in District of Columbia that it was “making a solid and swift progress in proposing to remove from its regulations certain H4 spouses of H1B non-immigrants as a class of aliens eligible for employment authorisation”.
The DHS said the new rule would be submitted to the Office of Management of Budget (OMB), White House, within three months.
Till then, the department urged the court to keep in abeyance its decision on a lawsuit filed by Save Jobs USA, representing a group of US workers who claim that their jobs have been hit by such a policy of the government that was promulgated during the previous Obama administration.
This is for the third time that the Department of Homeland has informed the court about the delay in issue of Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM). The DHS has filed three status reports — on February 28, May 22, and August 20. The next status report is due on November 19.
Explaining the reasons for delay, the US attorney said since the filing of the most recent status report, the DHS’s senior leadership reviewed the pro- posed rule and returned it to US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) this month for revisions.
However, Save Jobs USA has sought an early decision from the court, arguing that the longer the case remains in abeyance, the greater the possible harm to US workers.
"Ninety-three per cent of approved applications for H4 employment authorisation were issued to individuals born in India, and five per cent were issued to individuals born in China. Individuals born in all other countries combined make up the remaining two per cent of approved applications," the Congressional Research Service said in its recent report, based on information obtained from the US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS).