Joe Biden, the new President of America has taken several steps to withdraw orders of his predecessor Donald Trump. With latest order, the Biden administration has withdrawn the rules set by Trump administration for the H4 visa holder or certain subset of the spouses of H1B visa holders.
The Biden administration has nixes Trump's orders to
rescind from the Obama era regulation that allowed a certain subset of spouses
of H1B visa holders to work in the US. H4 visa holders could not legally hold
paid employment in the United States up until the summer of 2015,. The lawsuits
followed and then the Trump presidency took the attack on the H4 work permit to
a whole new level after Obama changed it.
The outpouring of relief played out in online chat groups, text messages and
online threads on Tuesday evening. "Great news! Hopefully H4EAD delays will
be ending soon which is leading to a long wait for dependent spouses,"
tweeted Rashi Bhatnagar.
Sharmistha Mohapatra posted, "Big win for H4 EAD holders today. Former
Pres Trump's EO to rescind H4 EAD is now withdrawn by POTUS. Let's hope
excruciating long wait times often resulting in job loss is taken away
too!"
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From the time the skewering of the H4 work permit (called the EAD) began in
Fall 2017, the proposed rule has been published seven times for ongoing review,
keeping the H4 community on cliff-edge. The Trump government justified the move
saying it is "economically significant" and aligns with the "Buy
American and Hire American" executive order, which was mostly code for
keeping foreign workers out of the US and flinging red meat to the Trump base.
Now, the backlink to that Trump executive order ends up as a 404 (page not
found) error and re-routes to the Biden White House.
"Removing H-4 Dependent Spouses from the Class of Aliens Eligible for
Employment Authorization" was a Trumpian agenda pursued by White House
immigration hawks with intense zeal and inter-agency collaboration. It was
being reviewed by the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) and Office of
Information and Regulatory Affairs (OIRA), where it was parked for months. The
pressure on the H4 community never really let up since Trump took office.
The decision to rescind the proposed rule on revoking the H4 work permit came
on the same day Biden signed an executive order calling for the practice of
racial equity in the United States. Data from the US government show that
Indian and Chinese workers account for the lion's share of H1B visas. H4 visas
typically follow the same trajectory. Indians filed 74 per cent of all H1B
petitions in fiscal year 2019. Chinese filed 11.8 percent.