RESPITE FOR H-1B SPOUSES AS US DELAYS DECISION

In a major reprieve for spouses of thousands of H-1B visa holders, predominantly from India, the Trump administration has delayed until June its proposal to end work authorisation granted by the predecessor ObThe Department of Homeland Security (DHS) had earlier announced its intention to terminate by February-end the Obama-era programme of 2015 under which spouses of H-1B visa holders awaiting green cards for permanent residence were allowed to work for the first time.
In a court filing on February 28, the DHS submitted that following a re-evaluation, it needs to make “significant revisions” to its draft proposal by conducting a fresh economic analysis over several weeks before finalizing its new rule by June.
The DHS made the submission to the US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia, which is hearing a lawsuit filed by an organization called Save Jobs USA, demanding scrapping the work authorization for H-1B spouses on the grounds that it had hurt job opportunities for American workers.In its filing, the DHS said the changes to the rule and the revised economic analysis require revisions to the projected timeline, noting that in the circumstances, the NPRM (Notice of Proposed Rule Making) cannot be issued in February.
“Under the revised timeline, DHS anticipates submitting to the Office of Management and Budget for review and clearance the proposed rule in time for publication in June 2018,” it said.
The DHS, however, stressed that its “intentions to proceed with publication of an NPRM concerning the H-4 visa rule at issue in this case remain unchanged”.
The delay, along with indications of “significant revisions” to the draft proposal, has enthused organisations that have for long been battling for the work authorization to H-1B spouses.
 “We are very hopeful. We want to believe that DHS is re-looking at this because of our efforts,” Jansi Kumar, co-founder of the group “Save H-4 EADs”, told India-West, the ethnic Indian journal published from California. EAD stands for Employment Authorization Document.
   Kumar’s group, which has about 5,000 followers on Facebook and has been interacting with members of Congress on the EAD issue, says that both Republican and Democratic lawmakers have been “very supportive”.
Another group, which calls itself “H-4 Visa, A Curse,” has been quoted as saying that many of the 15,000 members of the organization are relieved that they have a bit more time before a decision is made. Bhatnagar’s appeal to DHS is: “Take a wise decision that will benefit both H-4 visa holders and the American economy.”

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