Joe Biden administration settles for automatic job authorization for spouses of H-1B visa holders.
In another immigration-friendly move, the Biden administration has agreed to provide automatic work authorization permits to the spouses of H-1B visa holders, a move that will benefit thousands of Indian-American women.
That regard was settled in a class-action lawsuit by the Department of Homeland Security that the American Immigration Lawyers Association (AILA) filed on behalf of the immigrant spouse this summer.
“It (H-4 visa holders) is a group that has always met the regulatory test for automatic extension of EAD (Employment Authorization Document), but the agency previously banned them from that benefit and re-authorized them. People were suffering. They were losing their high-paying jobs for no valid reason, hurting them and American businesses,” said AILA’s John Wasden.
The lawsuit successfully overturned U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) policy, which prohibited H-4 spouses from benefiting from the automatic extension of their employment authorization while stand-alone EAD applications were pending.
“While this is a major achievement, the agreement of the parties will result in a massive change in the situation for USCIS, which now recognizes that L-2 spouses receive automatic work authorization event status, meaning that These spouses of executives and managers will no longer have to apply for employment authorization before working in the United States,” AILA said.
“We are pleased to have reached this settlement, which includes relief for H-4 spouses through our litigation efforts with Vasan Banias and Steven Brown. It is gratifying that the Administration has observed that nonimmigrant spouses have To settle the lawsuit was something that should be done, and can be done quickly,” said AILA director of federal litigation, Jesse Blaise.
The Obama administration gave the right to work to certain categories of spouses of H-1B visa holders. So far, more than 90,000 H-4 visa holders, a significant majority of whom are Indian-American women, have received work authorization.
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