In limbo, some families in U.S. with H-1Bs make other plans
PRI’s The World
She was 23 and not allowed to work in 2005 when she first came to the United States. Now 36, Archana Vaidyanathan is interviewing with major technology firms in Northern California to see if her expertise is still in demand.
Ms. Vaidyanathan holds an H-4 visa, given to family of those who come to the U.S. with H-1B visas, sponsored by employers. The Department of Homeland Security filed an update in federal court on Aug. 20 that a new rule to rescind the right to work for spouses of H-1B visa holders is in its final stages of “clearance review.”
But — despite months of rhetoric about curbing work authorization for people like Ms. Vaidyanathan — DHS still has not said if or when the spouses of H-1B holders will lose work authorization.
“Well, I mean, that regulation is still being worked on, and there are — I definitely want that regulation to get out,” said L. Francis Cissna, director of U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, which administers the program. He said this in August, at an event hosted by the Center for Immigration Studies, which advocates for less immigration to the U.S.
“That regulation, though, is fighting for attention with a number of other regulations, some of them much bigger, probably more important, and not all of them from my own agency within DHS,” Mr. Cissna said.
In a statement to PRI, USCIS spokesperson Michael Barrs said that USCIS is continuing to review all employment-based visa programs, including the H-4, but that no decision is final until rulemaking is complete. “We will continue adjudicating all petitions, applications and requests fairly, efficiently, and effectively on a case-by-case basis to determine if they meet all standards required under applicable law, policies, and regulations,” he said.
And so, H-4 visa holders like Ms. Vaidyanathan are both creating backup plans to life and strategizing how to make the best of their current situations — because they don’t know what might pan out of these anxiety-inducing statements.
“Of course, the other side of the story is that I’m getting calls for interviews,” Ms. Vaidyanathan says, “which tells me I’m a qualified candidate.”
Discussions on ending H-4 employment authorization started at the end of last year, when DHS first announced plans to rescind the 2015 rule that granted them. Under that rule, only H-4 visa holders whose spouses were on the path to permanent residency, after petitioning for and receiving approval for a green card, could apply.
But President Donald Trump’s “Buy American, Hire American” executive order proposed changes that lined up with arguments in a long-standing lawsuit against DHS. Save Jobs USA, an organization of former Southern California Edison workers who say they lost their jobs to H-1B workers, filed the lawsuit against DHS just before then-President Barack Obama’s 2015 order went into effect. John Miano, a labor attorney representing Save Jobs USA, previously told PRI the lawsuit was to prevent the loss of jobs for Americans.
Under Mr. Trump, the government is no longer defending itself in this lawsuit. DHS and Save Jobs USA have been waiting for a court decision to line up with a review of the regulation, says Sarah Pierce, an expert on employment-based immigration at the Migration Policy Institute. Before the Aug. 20 update, DHS had previously said it would rescind the work authorization in June.