US technology industry, including Facebook, Microsoft, Apple, and Google requested the Trump administration to retain work permits for H-1B spouses, which falls under Obama-era rule, to work for America, legally.
According to the lobbying and advocacy groups and business bodies, “As the Trump Administration conducts its review of the H-4 rule, we respectfully encourage you and your colleagues to maintain the program given its importance to the business community and to the American economy.”
Groups that include the US Chamber of Commerce, the Information Technology Industry Council, and BSA-The Software Alliance has urged in a letter to the Citizenship and Immigration Services to keep the H-4 programme and allow the H-1B holders’ spouses with pending green cards to work in the US, legally. The was addressed to Lee Francis Cissna, Director of US Citizenship and Immigration Services.
Where as the Trump Administration argues that it displaces genuine American workers and thus, is moving ahead with its decision to not permit the H-1B holders’ spouses’ to work in the US.
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The letter said: “It is a function of the failure to reform our nation’s immigration system that this group of H-4 spouses — the majority of whom are women — continue to face uncertainty and may be prevented from working while they wait for bureaucratic backlogs to be cleared.”
According to the letter, the H-4 rule has limited unnecessary disruptions to businesses by ameliorating economic and personal hardships–resulting from the lack of spousal work authorisation–previously faced by many H-1B employees and their families as they obtain LPR status.
“The current demand for visas under certain employment- based preference categories and the application of the per- country quotas currently produce wait times of a decade or more for certain individuals and their families.
“Ultimately, a legislative solution is required to remove the per-country limits that have caused this green card backlog,” the letter said.
“This will not only force businesses to incur added costs and endure the disruptions associated with having to fill these key positions in their companies, but it also creates uncertainty that negatively affects long-term workforce planning,” the letter said.
The Obama era H-4 rule helped thousands of Indians, as the rule gave the employment authorisation for a limited subset of H-4 dependent spouses of H-1B nonimmigrant employees looking out for employment-based lawful permanent resident (LPR) status or Green card.
According to the USCIS reports, an estimated 133,502 individuals are with pending employment-based adjustment for status application in the US, as of October 2017.
