In a move that will benefit spouses of a good chunk of Indian and other foreign professionals holding H-1B visas, the United States proposes to grant work permits to spouses of those visa holders who are awaiting green cards for permanent residence on the basis of employer sponsorship.
As Indian techies roughly account for over 50 per cent of the H-1B visas granted annually, with large numbers of them awaiting green cards, the rule change could be a great boon for their spouses presently on H-4 dependent visas that do not permit them to work.
The US Department of Homeland Security (DHS), which administers the immigration services, estimates that the rule change could benefit the spouses of as many as 97,000 H-1B visa holders in the first year, and some 30,000 annually thereafter.
The rule change is expected to take effect after a 60-day period during which public comments will be received and considered by the department.
In the face of opposition from some domestic groups that reject any liberalisation of immigration norms, the Obama administration has justified the proposed move as one driven by its commitment to attract and retain highly-skilled immigrants to ensure that the US retains its competitive edge vis-à-vis with other countries.
In a carefully-worded release, the DHS said the proposed change “would allow the H-4 dependent spouses of certain H-1B nonimmigrant workers to request employment authorisation, as long as the H-1B worker has already started the process of seeking lawful permanent residence through employment”.
“The proposed rules announced today provide important support to US businesses while also supporting economic growth here in the US,” said Deputy Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, adding: “Businesses continue to need these high-skilled workers, and these rules ensure we do not cede the upper hand to other countries competing for the same talent.”
Given that many immigrant professionals go on to launch their own start-ups that fuel US growth and job creation, Commerce Secretary Peny Pritzker said the proposed rule changes are integral to the administration’s efforts to strengthen entrepreneurship and innovation, commenting: “These actions promise to unleash more of the extraordinary contributions that immigrants have always made to America’s innovation economy.”
The limited executive action by the Obama administration comes even as its comprehensive immigration reform legislation is stuck in the US Congress. The omnibus legislation that addresses the central issue of a path to earned citizenship for more than 11 million illegal immigrants also has a provision to raise the number of H-1B visas from 65,000 a year to 115,000 for a start.