Joe Biden, the new President of America has taken severalsteps to withdraw orders of his predecessor Donald Trump. With latest order,the Biden administration has withdrawn the rules set by Trump administrationfor the H4 visa holder or certain subset of the spouses of H1B visa holders.
The Biden administration has nixes Trump's orders torescind from the Obama era regulation that allowed a certain subset of spousesof H1B visa holders to work in the US. H4 visa holders could not legally holdpaid employment in the United States up until the summer of 2015,. The lawsuitsfollowed and then the Trump presidency took the attack on the H4 work permit toa whole new level after Obama changed it.
The outpouring of relief played out in online chat groups, text messages andonline threads on Tuesday evening. "Great news! Hopefully H4EAD delays willbe 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. FormerPres Trump's EO to rescind H4 EAD is now withdrawn by POTUS. Let's hopeexcruciating long wait times often resulting in job loss is taken awaytoo!"
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From the time the skewering of the H4 work permit (called the EAD) began inFall 2017, the proposed rule has been published seven times for ongoing review,keeping the H4 community on cliff-edge. The Trump government justified the movesaying it is "economically significant" and aligns with the "BuyAmerican and Hire American" executive order, which was mostly code forkeeping 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 notfound) error and re-routes to the Biden White House.
"Removing H-4 Dependent Spouses from the Class of Aliens Eligible forEmployment Authorization" was a Trumpian agenda pursued by White Houseimmigration hawks with intense zeal and inter-agency collaboration. It wasbeing reviewed by the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) and Office ofInformation and Regulatory Affairs (OIRA), where it was parked for months. Thepressure 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 cameon the same day Biden signed an executive order calling for the practice ofracial equity in the United States. Data from the US government show thatIndian and Chinese workers account for the lion's share of H1B visas. H4 visastypically follow the same trajectory. Indians filed 74 per cent of all H1Bpetitions in fiscal year 2019. Chinese filed 11.8 percent.