The US Supreme Court has refused to hear a challenge to an Obama-era program giving work authorization to H-1B visa holders’ spouses, a large majority of whom are Indians.
The eight-year-old lawsuit, filed by Save Jobs USA, a group of technology workers, claims offering employment authorization for some spouses of H-1B visa holders was created without Congressional approval, as required by the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA).
As such, the group claims the H-4 visa employment authorization policy is not legal. With the Supreme Court’s decision to not hear the case, the 2015 lawsuit comes to a close.
The lawsuit was opposed by prominent tech companies such as Apple, Amazon, Google, and Microsoft. Almost 100,000 work authorizations have been issued by the US to spouses of high skilled H-1B workers. In recent years, Indians have cornered more than 70% of 65,000 H-1B visas issued annually.
The Obama administration initiated an employment authorization process for H-4 visa holders who are spouses of H-1B visa holders with pending green card applications.
Under that policy, dependent spouses of H-1B visa holders can apply for employment-based lawful permanent residency in order to find US employment for themselves.
In March of 2023, Federal judge Tanya Chutkan agreed with the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) who stated the rule didn’t affect any new additions to the workforce.
The policy only opened the opportunity a bit earlier. Further, the judge noted that the dependent spouses of H-1B holders who qualify for employment authorization make up less than 0.12% of the US workforce. As such, the impact is minimal.
The judge also noted that Congress gave DHS the authority to set conditions and timeframes for visa holders’ US stay, including possible options for accompanying spouses.
Some spouses of other visa types have similar employment authorization benefits as well.
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