US technology trade groups representing Apple, Microsoft, Facebook and Google have urged the Trump administration to retain an Obama-era rule that allows some spouses of H-1B visa holders, including Indians, to also work legally in America.
Groups including the Information Technology Industry Council, the US Chamber of Commerce and BSA-The Software Alliance wrote to Citizenship and Immigration Services to urge the government to keep the H-4 program which allows the spouses of H-1B holders with pending green cards to legally work in the US.
The Trump Administration is reportedly moving ahead with its decision not to give work permits to the spouses of H-1B visa holders, arguing that this displaces genuine American workers.
"As the Trump Administration conducts its review of the H-4 rule, we respectfully encourage you and your colleagues to maintain the program given its importance to the business community and to the American economy," said the lobbying and advocacy groups and business bodies.
The H-1B program offers temporary US visas that allow companies to hire highly skilled foreign professionals working in areas with shortages of qualified American workers. This work visa is highly popular among Indian IT professionals.
According to the letter, the H-4 rule has limited unnecessary disruptions to businesses by ameliorating economic and personal hardships resulting from the lack of spousal work authorization previously faced by many H-1B employees and their families as they obtain LPR status.
As of October 2017, the USCIS reported that there are an estimated 133,502 individuals with pending recruitment service based adjustment of status applications in the United States.
"The current demand for visas under certain employment-based preference categories and the application of the per-country quotas currently produce wait times of a decade or more for certain individuals and their families. “Ultimately, a legislative solution is required to remove the per-country limits that have caused this green card backlog,” the letter said.
In the interim, H-4 visa holders from oversubscribed countries would wait years to work without the H-4 rule, the letter said and warned that employers would also face an increased risk that their valued, long-term employees will choose to leave their companies for other employment opportunities in countries that allow these workers and their families to raise their standard of living.
"These will not only force businesses to incur added costs and endure the disruptions associated with having to fill these key positions in their companies, but it also creates uncertainty that negatively affects long-term workforce planning," the letter said. A 2015 rule issued by the Obama administration allows work permits for spouses who otherwise couldn't be employed while H-1B visa holders seek permanent resident status a process that can take a decade or longer.
“It is a function of the failure to reform our nation’s immigration system that this group of H-4 spouses — the majority of whom are women — continue to face uncertainty and may be prevented from working while they wait here for bureaucratic backlogs to be cleared,” the letter said.
Dean Garfield, chief executive officer of the Information Technology industry Council, said in a phone interview on Wednesday, “To the extent that a spouse isn’t able to work, it makes coming to the United States less attractive.”
During a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on Tuesday, Republican Senator Orrin Hatch of Utah questioned Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen on the proposal.
“The 2015 rule seemed to me to be a pretty sensible policy,” Hatch said. “Can you explain why DHS is planning to rescind this policy?”
Nielsen replied that she would look into the matter, while adding, “Unfortunately, over the years, in general, we have gotten away from the intent of Congress with respect to some of the visa categories.”
Hatch said on the Senate floor on Wednesday that he plans to reintroduce legislation next week to revise the high-skilled immigration program to “help end our stupid practice of educating people here in the United States and then sending them back home to compete against us.”
Other proposals listed on the DHS agenda include changing the H-1B petitioning process to revise the definition of “specialty occupation” to admit the “best and brightest foreign nationals” and reduce fraud and abuse of training options.
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