Spouses of US immigrants on H-1B visas could lose their right to work

An ongoing lawsuit and a clampdown by the Trump administration
has left the status of thousands of skilled workers’ spouses hanging
in the balance

Olivia Solon in San Francisco
Tuesday 4 April 2017 01.57 BST

Thousands of people – mostly women – working legally in the United States under Obama-era rules could be forced to stop working under Trump.

Currently, if someone has an H-1B visa, which allows skilled workers to come to the US temporarily, and has applied for lawful permanent residence, their spouse can apply to work under an H-4 employment authorization.

“These are almost always highly educated women who are pretty awesome in their own right. They have masters degrees, doctorates and are capable of contributing a lot,” said Madhuri Nemali, a Silicon Valley immigration lawyer at Cameo Law Group, who has seen a surge in queries from concerned clients.

This authorization, called the H-4 employment authorization document, (EAD) was introduced by the Obama administration in February 2015 to try and retain skilled talent in the United States. Not permitting spouses to work during the long wait for green cards – which can take more than a decade – acted as a disincentive for families where both partners wanted to pursue careers.

Now the employment status of thousands of spouses hangs in the balance thanks to a lawsuit filed in 2015 by Save Jobs USA, an organization comprised of IT workers who claim they lost their jobs to H-1B visas.

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