The Trump administration is moving forward with its plan to end an Obama-era program that allowed spouses of H-1B visa holders to work in the United States.
The Director of USCIS Francis Cissna, in a three page letter to the US Senate Juiciary Committee, has confirmed it’s the end of the road for H4 workers’ employment authorisations in Donald Trump’s administration and an announcement will come later this summer.
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. 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. More than 100,000 H-4 visa holders have been beneficiary of this rule.
The Trump administration is planning to terminate this provision. Trump’s move will hit India workers in the US the most. The US has issued employment authorisation documents to spouses of more than 71,000 of H-1B visaholders, over 90 per cent of whom are Indians, a report has said.