WASHINGTON – Donald Trump has turned out to be the worst nightmare forIndian Americans working in the United States as tens of thousands ofIndians are likely to face worst blow and may be deported from America.
The Donald Trump administration is planning to withdraw work permits issuedto H-4 visa holders, who are spouses of H IB Visa holders, a majority ofwhom are Indians and mostly women. A formal communication is expected to bemade later this summer, US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS)Director Francis Cissna has said in a letter to Senator Chuck Grassley.
If this Obama-era legislation is terminated, approximately 71,000 H4visa-holders stand the risk of losing their work permits. According to arecent study by the Migration Policy Institute, around 94 per cent of H-4visa holders are women and the vast majority — 93 per cent — are from Indiawhile four per cent are from China.ADVERTISEMENTWhat are H-4 Visa and H1-B visa?
H-4 visa is a work permit issued to the spouses of H1-B visa holders undera special order by the previous Obama administration. The H1-B Visa,meanwhile, is a non-immigrant visa that allows US companies to hire foreignworkers on a temporary basis in speciality occupations such as Science andInformation Technology.The 2015 Obama administration order allows work permits for spouses whootherwise could not be employed without waiting for their spouses toreceive permanent resident status, a process that could take a decade orlonger. The Trump administration is planning to terminate this provision.
More than 100,000 H-4 visa holders have so far been beneficiary of thisrule.
Indian IT giants like TCS, Infosys and Wiprolink> are among the major beneficiariesof this programme as they rely on it for bringing in tens of thousands ofemployees with special skills each year.ADVERTISEMENT*Why you should care?*
Indian-Americans were a major beneficiary of this provision. Without theH-4 work authorization rule, the spouses of H1-B high-skilled employeeswould be unable to work legally and contribute financially to theirhouseholds and communities, as well as pay taxes on their wages, unlessthey had alternate immigration avenues for work authorization.
Influential lawmakers and representative of the American IT industry,including Facebook link>, have opposedthe Trump administration’s proposed plan to withdraw work permits to H-4visa holders, who are spouses of H1-B visa holders.
*Tough stand on H1-B visa, and now H4*
The Trump administration announced a new policy in 2017 that made theprocedure of issuing H1-B visas to those to be employed at one or morethird-party worksites very tough. Under the policy, the company would haveto go the extra length to prove that its H1-B employee at a third-partyworksite has specific and non-qualifying speculative assignments inspeciality occupation.
The new move announced empowers the US Citizenship and Immigration Services(USCIS) to issue H-1B visas to an employee only for the period for whichhe/she has work at a third-party worksite.
As such the issuing of H1-B visas could be of less than three years. Thenew policy would reverse the tradition of issuing the H1-B visas for threeyears at a time.
Extensions of H1-B visas have become even tougher, in particular if theemployee has been on a bench for any part of their previous duration.
In a letter to Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen M Nielson, thelawmakers argued that the Obama-era H-4 rule lessened the burden onthousands of H-1B recipients and their families while they transition fromnon-immigrants to lawful permanent residents by allowing their families toearn dual incomes.
Many entrepreneurs have used their Employment Authorisation Documents (EAD)to start businesses that now employ US citizens. “Eliminating this benefitremoves an important incentive for highly skilled immigrants to remain hereto invest in and grow our economy to the benefit of all Americans,” theletter signed by, among others, Congresswoman Anna Eshoo and CongressmanRaja Krishnamoorthi, said.