Spouses of visa holders H-1B banned from working in the US

After almost two years of waiting, the United States made progress on the abolition of work permits in the United States for the wives and husbands of H-1B visa holders.

Фото: Depositphotos

Spouses of some H-1B visa holders who have received permission to work in the United States on the basis of Obama era regulations can be left without this right, writes NBC News.

Changes in the visa program first discussed in 2017. All this time, those whom they could touch were in a state of uncertainty. February 20 proposed changes were officially transferred to the United States Administration and Budget. This means the Department of Homeland Security has already completed its own work on new standards.

The H-1B program attracts foreign experts (many of them from India and China) to work in the United States. Innovations can deprive spouses of H-1B visa holders, who are already on the way to getting green cards, to be employed in the United States.

“The news is that this rule was eventually put forward as a formal proposal,” said William Stock, a Philadelphia immigration lawyer and former president of the American Immigration Lawyers Association.

A spokeswoman for the US Citizenship and Immigration Services, Jessica Collins, said that the agency continues to review all visa programs based on employment, including the right to work on the basis of an H-4 visa (it is received by the H-1B holders).

“No decision on H-4 spouse employment eligibility is final until the rulemaking process is completed,” she said.

Фото: Depositphotos

As soon as the U.S. Administration and Budget Administration completes the review, this ruling may be sent back to the Department of Homeland Security or approved for publication in the Federal Register as a proposed regulatory act.

After that, as a rule, from 30 to 90 days is allocated for public discussion (on average, it takes 60 days). Comments review and form the final document.

According to USCIS, since the creation of the original rule, the Obama administration in 2015 has approved about 91 000 applications for the right to work in the H-4 category. Proponents argue that this rule helps alleviate financial pressure on families of H-1B holders who would otherwise have to live on one income. The work permit of spouses, in their opinion, will help preserve foreign talents in the United States.

But the rule also drew criticism, including from Save Jobs USA, a group of laid-off computer workers in California. They claimed that their jobs were filled by programmers from India who came on H-1B visas. In 2015, Save Jobs USA filed a federal lawsuit to block the H-4 rule after it was announced. The case was pending in the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit.

“In court there is a deadline. That may be why they decided to move forward with this issue,” Stock said, referring to the Trump administration's proposed changes.

Recall that in February the Department of Homeland Security published a decree that makes changes to the process of issuing work visas H-1B. They are expected to reduce employers ’overall visa application costs, make the program more cost-effective and technically efficient for the Citizenship and Immigration Services, and increase the chances of obtaining these visas for people with higher education in American educational institutions.

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