US Government says Will Revoke Work Permits to H4 Visa Holders Within 3 Months; Indians will be affected

The Trump administration told a federal court on Saturday that its decision to revoke work permits to H-4 visa holders, who are mainly spouses of H-1B foreign guest workers, is coming within the next three months.

Majority of H-4 visa users are reportedly Indian-Americans. It is speculated that Trump administration's this move will have a serious impact on Indian women as they are largely benefitted from previous Obama Govt.

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) recently in its court filing told the US District Court in District of Columbia Saturday that it was "making a solid and swift progress in proposing to remove from its regulations certain H-4 spouses of H-1B non-immigrants as a class of aliens eligible for employment authorization".

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) said the new rule would be presented to the Office of Management of Budget (OMB), White House, within three months.

H-4 visas are released by the US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) to next to kin family members (spouse and children under 21 years of age) of the holders of H-1B visa, the most desired among Indian IT professionals.

This is for the third time that the Department of Homeland has apprised the court about the delay in issue of Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM). The DHS has already filed three status reports -- on February 28, May 22, and August 20. The next status report will be submitted on November 19.

US attorney by elucidating the reasons for delay, said since the filing of the most recent status report, the DHS’s senior leadership reviewed the proposed rule and returned it to US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) this month for revisions.

He said.“Senior leadership review and the request for revisions is standard practice within the DHS. When the necessary revisions are incorporated, the USCIS will return the proposed rule to the DHS for final clearance and submission to OMB.”

Nevertheless, 'Save Jobs USA' has sought an early decision from the court, claiming that the longer the case held in abeyance, the more the possible harm to the US workers.

Till December 25, 2017, the USCIS had approved 1,26,853 applications for employment authorisation for H-4 visa holders. This count all approvals since May 2015 when the rule was imposed. This number includes 90,946 initial approvals, 35,219 renewals, and 688 replacements for lost cards.

The Trump administration is at present reviewing the H-1B visa policy that it sees as being misused by companies to replace American workers. In its recent report the Congressional Research Service said "Ninety-three per cent of approved applications for H-4 employment authorisation was issued to individuals born in India, and five per cent were issued to individuals born in China. Individuals born in all other countries combined make up the remaining two per cent of approved applications."