The United States President Donald Trump’s administration has once again failed to meet its deadline for the second time this year to issue a notification regarding its authorization of H4 visa users who are spouses of H-1B visa holders.
The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) in March, had informed the U.S. court that it was functioning to issue a Notice of Proposed Rule Making in June this year. However, at the extremity of the month of June, the DHS did not give any explanation for not issuing the NPRM, which would have formally kicked off the process to terminate the Obama-era decision to render work authorization to spouses of H-1B visa holders.
“I have no updates to provide at this time,” said a DHS official, noting that he can’t speculate on when a decision would be made.
The DHS has insisted multiple times, this year as late as early June, that there were no alterations in its programme to revoke the Obama-era rule of providing authorization to certain categories of H-4 visas holders.
The DHS had as well missed a similar deadline in February when it told a federal court, which was hearing a litigation in this regard, that it anticipated submitting to the Office of Management and Budget for review and clearance the proposed rule in time for publication in June 2018.
The ongoing petition is being heard by U.S. district court of Columbia by Save Jobs USA, that has filed a case against the move of the previous Obama administration regarding work authorization to the spouses of H-1B visa holders whose green cards applications have been sanctioned.
“Furthermore, canceling work permits of spouses could negatively affect business operations for major IT companies,” Pooja B Vijayakumar, a doctoral student at the Kemmy Business School, Limerick, Ireland, and Dr. Christopher J L Cunningham from the University of Tennessee, at Chattanooga, said.
By Sowmya Sangam
