The U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) is taking forward proposals to end work permits for spouses of H1-B visas holders.
In December 2017, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) had announced that it was planning to make changes in the rules that allowed a certain category of H-4 visa holders — spouses of H-1B visa holders — to obtain Employment Authorisation Documents (EAD). The Obama administration allowed EAD for them in 2015 after several years of debate.
A court case challenging the rule is pending and the DHS is expected to submit its proposed changes in the rules in May, to the court.
According to USCIS data, 104750 H-4 visa holders have been issued EAD until 2017. Most of them are Indians and most of them are women.
No deadline
In an April 4 letter to Senator Charles E. Grassley USCIS Director L Frank Cissna said the agency had announced the curbs earlier and the public would have an opportunity to provide feedback during a notice and comment period, as is the case with all regulatory changes.
No deadline has been specified for these steps. Mr. Cissna had written a similar letter to a group of 15 lawmakers in March also, after they sought the continuation of the H4 EAD.
USCIS has said that starting this year, it may approve H-1B visas for a duration shorter than three years, which has been the norm until now.
The agency has also started treating H-1B renewal applications as fresh petitions, requiring the petitioners to establish the eligibility all over again.
As a result, requests for additional information before renewal petitions are processed, have dramatically increased under the Trump administration.
