NO DECISION ON H4 VISAS IS FINAL: US

No decision about H-4 visas is final until the rulemaking process is completed, a senior US official has said, days after over 100 lawmakers urged the Trump administration to continue granting work authorisation to certain dependent spouses of non-immigrant workers holding H-1B visas.

WASHINGTON: No decision about H-4 visas is final until the rulemaking process is completed, a senior US official said, days after over 130 lawmakers urged the Trump administration to continue granting work authorisation to certain dependent spouses of non-immigrant workers holding H-1B visas, the most sought-after among Indian IT professionals.

The administration is planning to revoke a rule that makes spouses of thousands of immigrant workers eligible to work while in the US, a move that could have a devastating impact on tens of thousands of Indians.

H-4 is issued to the spouse of H-1B visa holders, a significantly large number of whom are highskilled professionals from India. They had obtained work permits under a special order issued by the previous Obama administration. The move to end the Obama-era rule could have an impact on more than 70,000 H-4 visas holders, who have work permits.

“No decision about H-4 visas is final until the rulemaking process is completed,” Philip Smith, a US Citizenship and Immigration Services spokesperson said. This comes after more than 130 influential lawmakers wrote a letter to the US Homeland Security Secretary not to rescind the Obama administration’s decision to provide work authorisation to certain categories of H-4 visas, which are mainly spouses of H-1B visas.