The Trump administration is planning to revoke a rule that makes spouses of thousands of immigrant workers eligible to work while in the US, a move that could have a devastating impact on tens of thousands of Indians.
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No decision about H-4 visas is final until the rulemaking process is completed, a senior US official has said, days after over 100 lawmakers urged the Trump administration to continue granting work authorisation to certain dependent spouses of non-immigrant workers holding H-1B visas, the most sought-after among Indian IT professionals.
The Trump administration is planning to revoke a rule that makes spouses of thousands of immigrant workers eligible to work while in the US, a move that could have a devastating impact on tens of thousands of Indians.
H-4 is issued to the spouse of H-1B visa holders, a significantly large number of whom are high-skilled professionals from India. They had obtained work permits under a special order issued by the previous Obama administration.
The move to end the Obama-era rule could have an impact on more than 70,000 H-4 visas holders, who have work permits.
"No decision about H-4 visas is final until the rulemaking process is completed," Philip Smith, a US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) spokesperson told PTI.
This comes days after more than 130 influential lawmakers wrote a letter to the US Homeland Security Secretary not to rescind the Obama administration's decision to provide work authorisation to certain categories of H-4 visas, which are mainly spouses of H-1B visas.
All indications so far, including the Spring Agenda, reveal that the Trump administration is planning to end the Obama-era rule allowing spouses of H1-B visa holders to work legally in the US.