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H-4 Visa

H-1B VISA holder’s spouse can work under H-4 visas in US

Los Angeles, March 30, 2023
NRIpress.club/Ramesh/ A.Gary Singh Grewal

H-1B VISA holder's and BIG US COMPANIES won a major court victory in Washington, where a judge dismissed a suit challenging the rights of highly skilled H-1B visa holders’ spouses to work in the US.
Judge Tanya Chutkan issued a decision upholding the Obama-era rule under which the U.S. Department of Homeland Security has issued H-4 visas to the spouses of hundreds of thousands of H-1B workers in the US, 70% of whom hold science and engineering jobs in the tech sector. 

  • Judge Chutkan rejected arguments by Save Jobs USA, a group representing Southern California Edison computer professionals who said they had been replaced by H-1B visa-holders

Google , Microsoft Corp, Amazon.com Inc. and Apple Inc, were among the companies who urged the judge to let the rule stand.

 

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Trump proposal will stop Thousands of Indian wives (H-4 visa Holders) to work in the US
Mr Trump’s “Buy American and Hire American” executive order

Los Angeles, Dec. 15, 2017
NRIpress.club/Ramesh/ A.Gary Singh Grewal

An H-4 visa is a visa issued to immediate family members (spouse and children under 21 years of age) of the H-1B visa holders. ... These visas are usually issued at the local US consulate office abroad.

The Department of Homeland Security has announced it is reviewing the Obama-era rule, which allowed spouses of certain H-1B visa holders to work in the US. H1-B visas are granted to foreign workers with a graduate-level education or above, who come to the US to work in speciality occupations like finance or engineering. The United States Citizenship and Immigration Service (USCIS) estimated in 2015 that as many as 179,600 people could apply for the H-4 visa under the rule that year, with 55,000 a year after that.

  • Until 2015 the spouses of H1B visa holders were not permitted to work in the US, unless they had secured their own H1B visa sponsor and petition approval. his is a welcome rule change that could allow over 50,000 spouses to work in the US
  • In 2015, Indians are the largest H-4 visas holders (almost nearly 80%) of the 125,000 issued
  • Over 41,000 of these spousal work authorizations were approved in the year-ended September 2016

This was an Obama executive order that was put in place because of pressure from silicon valley employers, specially Indian Companies.

The Obama-era rule is also the subject of a lawsuit by Save Jobs USA, a group of IT workers who claim they lost their jobs to H-1B visa holders. The lawsuit contends that H-4 visas holders are taking even more jobs away from American workers.

IRLI’s client, Save Jobs USA, is made up of former employees of Southern California Edison, a publicly-traded corporate utility that drew criticism from bipartisan legislators in Congress when it displaced 500 of its American employees after forcing them to train their cheaper foreign replacements. The Obama-era rule is also the subject of a lawsuit by Save Jobs USA, a group of IT workers who claim they lost their jobs to H-1B visa holders. The lawsuit contends that H-4 visas holders are taking even more jobs away from American workers.

IRLI is the the Immigration Reform Law Institute (IRLI) serves as a public-interest legal education and advocacy law firm-defend the rights of individual Americans and their local communities from the harms and challenges posed by mass migration to the United States

Trump to propose ending rule allowing spouses of H-1B holders to work in U.S…….. CNNTech CNNTech December 15, 2017 The Trump administration will propose revoking a rule that makes spouses of thousands of immigrant workers eligible to work while in the U.S., potentially complicating a major driver of technology jobs…. .READ MORE
U.S. considers ending rule allowing spouses of H-1B visa holders to work: NBC News, Dec.15.2017-"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 programs," R. Carter Langston, a U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) spokesperson…… READ MORE

“I could not work and I realised I did not have a sense of purpose,” Meghna Damani, who left her advertising job in Mumbai to marry and move to the US, told Quartz last year. She battled severe depression during this time, a manifestation of the pressure that many H-4 spouses feel after years of remaining unemployed just to be able to live with their partners. “I wanted to just die. To no longer feel this guilt, this wastefulness. To no longer feel like a burden.”

ALWAYS PUT AMERICANS FIRST!....Trump

ICE arrests jumped as soon following Trump’s inauguration. ICE officials arrested 21, 362 immigrants from January through mid-March. Officials detained 16,104 immigrants in 2016.