Temporarily Relief to Indians in US Work Ban on H4 Visa Holders Until January

United States: Finally, Some good news to Indians Working in the United States, the proposed work ban on spouses and relatives of H-1B visa holders i.e., H-4 EAD (employment authorization document) will not be implemented this year.

Offering temporary relief to the H4 visa holders working in the US, On Monday, the US Department of Justice (DoJ) confirmed that work permits for H4 EAD (Employment Authorisation Document) visa holders shall be revoked in Spring 2020 between March and June.

In early 2015, the former president Barack Obama allowed the H-4 visa holders to work in the US, and through this H-4 visa program, most of the Indians(dependent family members - spouse and children - of the H1-B visa holders) and the majority of them qualified women have been the biggest beneficiaries, receiving over 90% of the 1.2 lacs visas issued since 2015.

Unfortunately later in 2017, Donald Trump administration first suspended the work visa programme believing in more for Americans, providing them more employment opportunities, led to the removal of the H-4 visa holders, as it was the part of Trump’s ‘Buy American, Hire American’ push, which has also resulted in a higher rate of H-1B denials in recent years. An estimated 1,00,000 foreign nationals, mostly Indian IT professionals working in the US would be affected.

Additionally, the US government recently changed the H1-B visa filing rule, which said that priority would be given to foreign workers with advanced degrees from US universities from this year.

The US court is currently hearing a lawsuit filed by the anti-immigration group "Save Jobs USA" to revoke the H4 EAD rule, which was organized by the Obama administration. The lawsuit which was filed in the spring of 2015, claims that the DHS had no authority to issue the H4 EAD rule.

Save Jobs USA sued the Obama administration after hundreds of Southern California Edison employees were replaced with H-1B workers from India.

The US court will decide on the case after hearing the oral arguments of both the DHS and Save Jobs USA, scheduled on September 27, 2019.

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