SPOUSES OF PEOPLE ON H1B FACE WORK BAN
Move to hit thousands of Indians who are on H1B visas. More than 41,000 H1B spouses got work permits in 2016
WASHINGTON: The Trump administration is planning to end an Obama-era regulation that allows spouses of H-1B workers to work in the US, a federal registry notice has stated.
The move will likely impact thousands of Indian nationals and their families — Indians account for almost 70% of the 85,000 non-immigrant, temporary work visas issued by the US every year.
Since 2015, the spouses of H-1B visa holders — in the US on H-4 dependent visas — have been allowed to work in order to attract and retain talent from abroad, but the ruling had become a target of critics of foreign workers programmes.
“DHS (department of homeland security) is proposing to remove from its regulations certain H-4 spouses of H-1B nonimmigrants as a class of aliens eligible for employment authorisation,” the notice published on Thursday said.
WASHINGTON: The Trump administration is planning to end an Obama-era regulation that allows spouses of H-1B workers to work in the US, a federal registry notice has stated.
The move will likely impact thousands of Indian nationals and their families — Indians account for almost 70% of the 85,000 non-immigrant, temporary work visas issued by the US every year.
Since 2015, the spouses of H-1B visa holders — in the US on H-4 dependent visas — have been allowed to work in order to attract and retain talent from abroad, but the ruling had become a target of critics of foreign workers programmes.
“DHS (department of homeland security) is proposing to remove from its regulations certain H-4 spouses of H-1B nonimmigrants as a class of aliens eligible for employment authorisation,” the notice published on Thursday said.
Besides scrapping the rule allowing spouses to work, the DHS notice mentioned plans for other changes in the H-1B programme, including revising the list of occupations eligible for the scheme “to increase focus on truly obtaining the best and brightest foreign nationals”.
The DHS said its action was in light of President Donald Trump’s executive order 13788 of April on “Buy American and Hire American”. A final decision is expected by February.
R Carter Langston of the US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) said: “The agency is considering a number of policy and regulatory changes to carry out the President’s ‘Buy American, Hire American’ executive order, including a thorough review of employment based visa programmes.
“USCIS is focused on ensuring the integrity of the immigration system and protecting the interests of US workers, and is committed to reforming employment based immigration programmes so they benefit the American people to the greatest extent possible. No decision about H-4 visas is final until the rule-making process is completed.”
The Trump administration has taken a hard line on both legal and illegal immigration. The president has ordered a review of the H-1B visa programme, which allows US businesses to hire highly skilled foreign workers, to end its alleged misuse and abuse to displace Americans.
While larger changes — such as in the Congress-mandated annual cap of 85,000 — would have to be legislated as part of a comprehensive immigration package, the administration has been changing regulations to tighten the H-1B programme. For instance, raising the bar for qualifying as “highly skilled”.
In 2015, the USCIS granted 26,858 employment authorisation documents to H-4 visa holders, 41,526 in fiscal 2016, and 36,366 from October 1, 2016 to June 29, 2017.
Immigration Voice, an advocacy group for H-1B visa-holders waiting for their Green Card argues that this “rule is critically important to allow both parents in families to work and provide for their loved ones together in the US rather than being separated in two different countries during what is often over a decade long wait for a Green Card”.
The withdrawal of the rule, it has argued, could adversely impact those on H-4 visas, who have gone on to start businesses employing American workers.