Reforming the ‘long-broken’ US immigration system has been one of the foremost agendas of the Biden-Harris administration. The President vowed to establish a ‘fair and orderly’ immigration law that not only welcomes legal immigrants, but also keeps their families together and allows them to contribute more to the country in the long run.

PC: Image by Freepik

On 4 February, the US Senate introduced the bipartisan National Security Agreement with reform measures aligned to President Joe Biden’s vision for a fair immigration law in America. The bill not only addresses border security concerns caused by illegal immigration, but also seeks to expedite work permits to eligible H4 visa holders, introduce ageing-out protection for children of H1B visa professionals, and increase the cap on the number of Green Cards issued annually. The bill finds strong support at the White House as the Biden-Harris administration urges the Congress to pass the bill immediately.

The National Security Agreement, if passed into law, will benefit one lakh skilled H4 dependents – spouses and children of certain long-term H1-B visa holders – looking for employment in the US. At present, H4 visa holders are required to obtain a work permit, Employment Authorization Document (EAD), to work in the US. This process takes 6-12 months or longer, because of which many miss out on the employment opportunity.

To address this, the bipartisan bill proposed automatic work permits to 100,000 H4 dependents of H1B visa holders who have completed their immigration visa petitions. This would eliminate the need to apply and wait for EAD approval to seek employment in the US, thus allowing skilled dependents ‘to contribute more fully to the country’. It, in turn, is a relief to over 250,000 H-4 dependent children as they will have a legal right to stay and work in the US temporarily even if they age out during the immigration process. However, the benefit applies to those who accompanied their parents as children and stayed in the US for at least 8 years before they turned 21 years old.

The Senate bill also propounds significant measures to clear the massive Green Card backlog, which has become a challenge for both applicants and USCIS officials alike. It seeks to increase the number of Green Cards (Permanent Resident Card) issued every year, thus effectively getting to the root of the backlog.

An increase of the annual limit of 1,40,000 employment-based green cards to 1,58,000 for the next five years would benefit a total of 90,000 employment-based green card seekers. Of the proposed 250,000 additional green cards over the next five years; 1,60,000 family-based green cards would facilitate lawful pathways to citizenship and ‘keep families together’. To further support family reunions, the bill includes a provision for certain noncitizens’ travel to the US on a temporary visitor visa (B visa) to meet their family members.

Additionally, 25,000 K-1, K-2, and K-3 visa holders (foreign-citizen fiancé of a US citizen, children of foreign-citizen fiancé, and foreign-citizen spouse of a US citizen respectively) are among the eligible beneficiaries of the automatic work authorization.

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The new bill introduced in the House of Representatives, if singed into a law, will make America a dream destination for H4 visa holders, who are often referred to as dependents of H1B, H2A, H2B, and H3 visa holders in the US. Lauded by non-immigrants from all quarters, the bill is aimed at making H4 visa holders independent and filling the existing labor gaps in the US economy. The bill named H4 Work Authorization Act seeks to help non-immigrant families thrive together.

Introduced by two Congresswomen – Carolyn Boudreaux and Maria Elvira Salazar, the H4 Work Authorization Act seeks an amendment to the current law, so that dependent spouses of H1B, H2A, H2B, and H3 visa holders are granted an automatic right to work in the US on receiving an h4 visa. As of today, H4 visa holders need to apply for an Employment Authorization Document (EAD) or temporary work permit through a Form I-765 issued by the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS). As long as EAD applications are awaiting approval, H4 visa holders cannot work in America.

Years of bureaucratic red tape make a big hurdle on their way to obtain work authorization in the United States. The backlog of H4 EAD applications, compounded by a pause in the operations of USCIS during the pandemic, has extended the timeline for approval from 6 to 9 months, even over 12 months in some cases. Endorsed by the National Immigration Forum, the H4 Work Authorization Act can help reduce the backlogs by seeking immediate work permit for H4 visa holders.

“This bill seeks to remove these needless barriers to ensure families can contribute and prosper together. If we are going to continue to be competitive and attract the greatest minds and talent around the world, we must ensure that the family members of high-value immigrants are able to build a life and career in the United States, just like everyone else,” Carolyn Boudreaux said.

Not being able to utilize their academic qualifications, highly-skilled H4 visa holders live a life of futility behind the glamor and glitters of America, and away from home in India. If approved by the Senate, the bill will lift their socio-economic status and empower them to contribute to the household income. Once signed into law, the bill will prove to be a breakthrough and usher in a new era of emancipation for dependent spouses of H1B, H2A, H2B, and H3 visa holders.

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A lot has been written about the green card limbo affecting the future of Indian families in the United States. Several bills including the HR 3648 EAGLE Act 2021, the RELIEF Act, and the Fairness for High-Skilled Immigrants Act have been brought onto the table seeking elimination of the country-wise cap on the number of employment-based green cards issued to Indian H1B professionals.

Picture Credit: Gofundme

Another Indian family fell apart over the green card logjam while waiting for legal permanent residency in the US. 48-year-old Anthuvan Kuzhandaisamy, a high-skilled Indian engineer on H1B, died of a heart attack early this month. His untimely demise has left his wife and two children vulnerable to deportation from the US as they have been rendered out of the H4 dependent status. After bidding a final goodbye to Anthuvan Kuzhandaisamy, they are looking towards uncertainties lying ahead.

Anthuvan, a techie from Tiruchirappalli in Tamil Nadu, was a SAP engineer on contract for Apple through DGN Technologies. He had built a happy nest in California while working for more than 12 years in the land of ‘American Dreams’. In a bid to concretize the nest in the country that he, along with his wife, had started calling their second home, he had filed a green card petition 8 years ago. But the wait time for a green card running into decades for Indian immigrants is taking toll on families like Anthuvan’s.

He was not just a high-skilled professional but also a kind-hearted soul. He helmed the IdhayaOli Foundation, a charitable nonprofit in San Francisco and Tamil Nadu, to help the needy and feed the hungry. He raised thousands of dollars to help the families of laborers who were left stranded and starved after India slipped into lockdown over the pandemic last year. Ironically, his own family is helpless and devastated today.

Anthuvan’s family cannot continue their stay on H4 visa in the US, according to the immigration system that Republic Zoe Lofgren described as ‘severely broken’ while introducing the EAGLE Act 2021 in June. It won’t be easy for them to restart their lives from a scratch in India either. His 19-year-old daughter, a sophomore at Arizona State University, can continue to stay in the US if she applies for the change of status from H4 to F1. To have an F-1 visa means paying exorbitant tuition fees, even if she has called the US her home since her childhood.

Also Read: Denial of H1B Renewal Leaves Indian Family Stranded

The sorry fate of tax-paying resident aliens, including Indian H1B workers stuck in the never-ending green card limbo, has caused outrage in the wake of Anthuvan’s sudden demise. On top of that, a PTI report about more than one lakh employment-based green cards on the verge of being wasted by September 30, 2021 has agitated the community of Indian immigrants. If the green card petitions continue to be processed at the current pace by the US Citizenship and Immigration Services, over 100,000 green cards will end up being wasted.

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May 18, 2021 marks an important day in the history of the Biden administration, as President Biden eliminated a Trump-era rule that had attempted at narrowing the definition of “speciality” occupations within the ambit of the H1B visa program. In October 2020, the Trump administration had issued a new regulation to redefine speciality occupations for US employers by seeking to narrow the definition of “speciality” so that they could not hire foreign graduates on H1B visa to fill in qualified Americans.

The Trump-era rule had invalidated a bachelor’s degree as an inadequate norm of eligibility for the H1B visa program unless H1B visa seekers had a bachelor’s degree in a specific discipline related to the jobs offered by US companies. However, President Biden directed the Department of Homeland Security to remove the Trump-era rule from the Code of Federal Rules, as it was nullified by a court.

In view of Biden’s decisive move, the definition of speciality occupation will continue to the same as it was before October 2020. Speciality occupation technically means “an occupation which requires theoretical and practical application of a body of highly specialized knowledge in fields of human endeavor… and which requires the attainment of a bachelor’s degree or higher in a specific specialty, or its equivalent, as a minimum for entry into the occupation in the United States”.

Two of the visa and immigration reforms imitated by the Trump administration do still exist. These are proposed elimination of the lottery system for random selection of H1B visa petitions and proposed revision of wages for H1B visa workers in sync with the prevailing wage rules to prevent an influx of ‘cheap foreign labor’ into America (H1B visa workers from India were often referred to as ‘cheap foreign labor’ in the Trump regime). Recently, the US Department of Labor said that the regulation regarding a raise in the wage rates for H1B visa and Green Card holders will be effective in a phased manner starting January 2023. The new wage rules have not yet been finalized.

The Biden administration is yet to achieve the most-awaited milestones – removal of country-wise limits on the allocation of green cards and prevention of aging-out of H4 dependent kids. Biden’s US Citizen Act 2021 seeks to remove roadblocks for green card aspirants and undocumented immigrants.

Within seven days of his swearing-in as President of the US, Biden ushered in a new era of independence for H4 visa holders with work authorization by eliminating Donald Trump’s H4 EAD-eliminating proposal. He emancipated over 100,000 Indian beneficiaries of the H4-EAD from the fears of losing their work permit. Early this month (May 2021), the Biden administration suspended the mandatory biometric process – a Trump-era executive order (13780) – for L2 and H4 visa holders’ EAD applications.

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Be it a pandemic, cross-border political conflict, or international travel restriction, lives at grass-roots level take a hit, in addition to economy. Some Indian families that started building a second home on the foundation of their ‘American Dreams’ are not an exception to the impact of the restricted entry into the United States. Some of the families including H1B and H4 visa holders have come to a tragic split-up over the USA’s current restriction on travel from India. One such family is that of Kiran and Jitendra Shukla, who suffered a breakup forever early this month.

Kiran Shukla, who is currently stuck in India, could not attend the funeral of her husband Jitendra Shukla in Edison, New Jersey due to the infinite ban on non-immigrant residents’ entry into the US.

Jitendra who called Edison home away from India died due to severe liver damage on May 10, while his wife on H4 was in Mumbai looking after COVID patients in her immediate family. The moment Kiran got the news about his untimely demise in solitude; the world came to an end for her. She struggled to travel back so that she could see him for the last time, but the US government’s proclamation restricting travel from India held her back in Mumbai and added to her dismay.

Kiran, an H4 EAD holder, was working in a bank in New Jersey prior to traveling to India in February when Indian government relaxed quarantine norms for international arrivals due to the decreasing caseload. Family emergency – taking care of her ailing father – was her reason for traveling to India. After her father passed away in April, her 35-year-old brother-in-law contracted the virus. He lost the battle, too.

While she was trying to deal with her personal grief, the second wave of the pandemic engulfed the country resulting in the India to USA travel restriction. The fate had some more bereavement for her.

Since Jitendra Shukla was hospitalized with abdominal complications immediately after the India-US travel ban took effect on May 4, Kiran had been trying to return to New Jersey. Initially she thought she would be able to fly back as a parent of an unmarried US citizen under the age of 21 years, but she could not make it without the visa stamping on her passport. The shutdown of the US Consulate, Mumbai made it a lot more difficult for her.

Jitendra and Kiran were likely to get their green cards in the next few months. As Jitendra, an H1B visa holder, passed away suddenly, she fears deportation from where she has had home for 20 years and separation from her US-born child. Her H4 status may be rendered invalid, and her life in USA may be jeopardized. Naturally, she can’t help but apprehend what awaits a law-abiding, tax-paying US resident like her next.

“Kiran Shukla could have applied for a National Interest Exception (NIE) on grounds of family emergency in the US. Perhaps, she was aware of this only way out of the impasse that the United States’ partial travel ban has created for certain non-US residents who are physically present in India,” said the editor of Travel Beats, a leading community portal for Indians in America by Indian Eagle.

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January 26, 2021 marked a milestone in the US history of immigration, as America’s 46^th President Joe Biden took a historic move in favour of H4 visa holders by rescinding Donald Trump’s proposal that had sought abolition of H4 EAD. A welcome relief to the Indian beneficiaries who were on the verge of being stripped of their H4 work permits in the Trump regime, Biden’s move failed to cut an ice with those waiting to receive their approved EAD or facing delay in extension/renewal of their existing EAD for months.

Picture Credit: Khili Sharma | Twitter

H4 work permit delays having led to the loss of jobs for many spouses of Indian H1B visa professionals, is a pressing issue that Biden was expected to address in the first month of his administration. The H4 EAD extension delay having rendered a Seattle-based Indian jobless most recently, the Biden administration’s next agenda should be addressing the issue and extending the validity of employment authorization documents for the beneficiaries.

Software professional Khili Sharma in Seattle lost her job with a leading organization due to the months-long delay in extension of her H4 work permit. She has been waiting for the H4 EAD renewal and a biometrics appointment since May 2020. Like several others, she is at a loss over the hiatus that the recent job loss has caused to her career in America, the land of opportunities. She could not give her employer a tentative date for her return to work as her ‘expedite request’ was rejected thrice by the US Citizenship and Immigration Services.

H4 EAD beneficiaries can raise ‘expedite’ requests with the USCIS for the fast adjudication of their petitions for the work permit extension under certain circumstances. Khili Sharma met with rejection within 3 hours of raising ‘expedite’ requests. She was not even asked for any supporting documentation. She also called up two USCIS agents only to be told that she should wait as the California Center’s processing time is 13-17 months. Having no other way out, she approached the congresswoman but her efforts bit the dust, as she told the American Bazaar.

Khili Sharma, who got married to a H1B professional, came to the United States with 6 years of professional experience in India. Her husband has been living and working in the US since before their marriage. Having a B.Tech degree in computer science, she worked for Accenture as a software engineer and for IBM as a senior IT professional in India. She had a promising career back home, whereas she tried hard to land a decent IT job in the US. She spent 7-8 months studying for job interviews after she arrived in the US.

In addition to her career in doldrums, Khili Sharma’s husband is stuck in the green card backlog, which adds to their apprehensions of an uncertain future in the land of American Dreams.

This International Women’s Day 2021, California saw a group of Indian women on H4 visa having staged a protest in San Jose seeking President Biden’s attention to their plight of being forced out of employment due to the arbitrary policies, including additional biometric requirement, which cause H4 visa and H4 EAD processing delays.

Organized by the #SaveH4EAD non-profit group, the event pushed an agenda requesting the Biden administration to abolish the mandatory H4 biometrics process and let H4EAD applicants use the approval notice as a proof of employment authorization. Notably, the Trump-era Executive Order 13780 which implemented the biometric process as part of the overall H4 visa processing has been repealed by Biden.

The group urged the Biden-Harris administration to introduce legislation for simultaneous processing of H1B and H4 visa renewal petitions when filed together and initiate premium processing for H4 as well as H4 EAD. Auto-extension of H4 work permits for 180-240 days until the renewal application goes through is also requested by the protesting Indian immigrant women. The #SaveH4EAD group said in a media release:

“These delays have led to a serious humanitarian crisis causing havoc in the lives of thousands of skilled legal immigrant women across the US. They’re losing their jobs and health insurances during this pandemic, are unable to renew driver’s license and state ID, unable to travel to their home country or elsewhere, facing grave financial distress, going through severe mental health issues, deep impact on family and kids, among other issues”.

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A new era of independence has been ushered in for H4 visa holders just on the sixth day of the Biden-Harris administration at the White House. H4 visa professionals, including Indian beneficiaries of the Employment Authorization Document, lived under the fear of losing their jobs until the Trump regime came to an end. Though they were sanguine about a relief in the reign of America’s 46^th President, apprehensions about being stripped of the H-4 EAD had been lingering until a historic win was announced in their favor yesterday, January 26.

President Joe Biden has withdrawn Donald Trump’s proposal to repeal the H-4 EAD, an Obama-era legal work permit to the qualified spouses of H1B visa holders in the US. In the new political regime of America, the word ‘withdrawn’ seems to be synonymous of emancipation from what was unjust and unfair in the previous administration.

The decisive move to keep the Obama-era regulation in force not only saves jobs of the H4 EAD holders, but also prevents them from being rendered into ‘H4 visa dependents’. Apparently, spouses of H1B visa workers are often called ‘H4 visa dependents’. It is a huge relief to over 100,000 Indian beneficiaries of the H4 EAD.

The day Joe Biden and Kamala Harris were sworn in to the White House, the Office of Management and Budget and the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs started reviewing the Trump administration’s proposed rule, “Removing H-4 Dependent Spouses from the Class of Aliens Eligible for Employment Authorization”. Upon completion of the review on January 25, the Biden cabinet took an informed decision to rescind the Trump-era proposal which would have otherwise rendered the H4 EAD holders jobless in 2021.

Notably, Neera Tanden, one of the Indian Americans in the Biden administration, heads the Office of Management and Budget.

The withdrawal of the H4 EAD-eliminating proposal is being hailed as the beginning of President Biden’s reformative take on the US economy through his immigration reform bill – the US Citizenship Act of 2021 which has been sent to Congress.

Over the past 4 years of the Trump administration, myriad attempts were made to eliminate the employment authorization granted to individuals on H4 visa. Other than critics of the most popular H1B visa program, Save Jobs USA – an advocacy group seeking to protect jobs for the locals – filed a lawsuit against the 2015 Obama-era regulation that acknowledges skilled H4 visa holders’ right to work and grants work permit to them.

In 2019, Save Jobs USA’s plea for the eradication of H-4 EAD was declined by a US Court of Appeals. A verdict on the lawsuit is still pending at a lower court. However, the new US government’s withdrawal of Trump’s proposal is likely to influent the lower court’s verdict in favor of H4 visa holders.

The only hurdle which is yet to be removed is the current delay in approval of H4 visa extension and renewal of work permits. In 2019, the spouses of a few H1B visa holders filed a petition against the US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) as they were on the verge of losing their jobs due to the delay in getting their applications for H4 visa and work permit renewal approved.

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The electoral confrontation between Donald Trump and Joe Biden seems to benefit immigrants and non-immigrants, including Indians on various US visas. President Trump’s hardline stance against foreign nationals on US employment visas is the biggest opportunity for Joe Biden to leverage his competitive advantage in the campaigns. In his immigration agenda, on July 15, former Vice President Biden promised to end the country-wise cap on the number of employment-based green cards issued to Indians. It prompted Trump to woo back those who his Presidential Proclamations (10014 and 10052) have left angered, anguished, frustrated and estranged from families.

Picture Credit: Forbes.com

In certain exceptions, announced on July 17, to the US Presidential Proclamations that suspended the entry of immigrants and non-immigrants till the end of 2020, the State Department allowed L1, J1 and H1B visa workers to unify with their spouses and kids stranded in India. The exemption from the visa ban allows the spouses and kids of H1B, L1 and J1, who would have otherwise remained alienated till this year end, to travel back to the United States.

They can return to the US, the country that they have been calling home for years, once their visas get stamped. Reportedly, the US embassies and consulates worldwide are all set to resume normal visa services soon. The US visa services, except for life-and-death emergency cases, have been suspended since March 2020 due to the COVID19 pandemic. The suspension of visa services and international flights prolonged their stay in India. The situation went out of the frying pan into the fire when Trump’s recent executive order banned the entry of those awaiting visa stamping in their countries of birth.

The White House’s visa ban conspired with travel restrictions and flight suspension triggered by the COVID19-induced lockdown across India to tear hundreds of Indian families apart. Many H4 spouses who had visited India for visa stamping in February or March found themselves stranded first due to flight cancellations and separated then from the family in USA due to the entry restrictions.

One H4 visa holder who had traveled to India with her toddler tweeted out of frustration, “It has been five months since I came to India for visa stamping. I got stuck here due to consulate closure and travel ban. My spouse is in the US. The presidential proclamation has separated us for the rest of the year.”

Exceptions to Presidential Proclamations: 10014 and 10052

However, they are somewhat relieved; all thanks to the recent exceptions to the Presidential Proclamations – 10014 and 10052. The exceptions apply to dependent spouses and children of the principal non-immigrant holding valid employment visas. If the principal non-immigrant is eligible for a discretionary exemption from the US visa ban, his/her dependents including spouse and kids can seek exemption from the Proclamations. Certain H1B visa holders who are public healthcare professionals or medical researchers working directly or indirectly to alleviate the impact of the COVID19 health crisis can travel back to the US. The exceptions to the Presidential Proclamations also cover H4 children who are on the verge of ageing out by January 14, 2021. Visit the US State Department website for details of exceptions to Presidential Proclamations.

Luckily, the US visa ban exemptions for certain H1B, H2B, L1, J1 visa holders and their dependents coincided with the announcement of 180 Air India flights between India and USA, starting July 22 till August 31. This time Air India tickets are expected to be less expensive compared to the flights operated under the Vande Bharat Mission. The booking of Air India flights between USA and India will open at 8 pm IST on July 18.

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Latest News: Today, President Donald Trump signed an executive order extending the ban on issuance of green cards and suspending US employment visas including H1B till the end of this calendar year. Reportedly, it will help the administration free up over 5 lakh jobs for Americans in the COVID19-affected economy. The suspension of non-immigrant US work visas also applies to H2 visa in non-agricultural sectors. The temporary freeze on fresh issuance of visas to foreign nationals will take effect immediately. The Trump administration is also mulling over an altogether different way of granting 85,000 H1B visas to replace the lottery system, an official said on condition of anonymity. Those foreign nationals being offered the highest wages are likely to be prioritized for H1B visa in a major restructure to the most popular employment visa program.

The ripple effect of the Coronavirus pandemic on the US economy manifests itself most distinctly in the restrictions that the White House is considering to curb immigration further and save American jobs for the locals. On one hand, the US economy is opening up in a calibrated manner, and on the other, the passage into the land of American Dreams is being blocked through highly anticipated suspension of US employment visas for foreign nationals. Reportedly, the White House is considering suspension of H1B, L1 and J1 visas in the new proposal for another executive order focused on boosting employment for Americans.

Picture Credit: Optnation.com/blog

The OPT program for STEM students from foreign countries and work permits for H4 visa holders are also on the verge of being affected by the impending executive order, according to the Wall Street Journal. President Trump’s chief immigration adviser and the architect of the US immigration mayhem, Stephen Miller described it as an inevitable first step towards restricting the inflow of immigration into the country.

If the H1B program is suspended in the fourth quarter of this fiscal, the suspension may continue through the next fiscal starting October 1, 2020. The proposal, if signed by President Trump, “could bar new H1B visa holders from coming to and working in the US”, as reported by the Wall Street Journal. However, the anticipated suspension of H1B visa is unlikely to affect those who are already in the US.

The changes to the H1B program under consideration, other than temporary suspension, include a whopping raise in the H1B visa fee to $20,000 from the current $460 given the COVID19 toll on the US economy.

Rescinding the H4 EAD policy to eliminate the work authorization for H4 visa holders is among the changes that the Trump administration is deliberating on in the proposal. Scrapping off the OPT program’s one-time extension of 24 months is also being mulled over. The definition of specialty occupations for foreign nationals is likely to be narrowed by President Trump’s upcoming executive order. Furthermore, cutting the length of the non-immigrant work visas for those on the ‘lowest pay’ rung of the ladder is another possibility in the coming weeks.

In its report on the proposed changes to H1B visa, H4 EAD policy and OPT program, the Wall Street Journal quotes a White House spokesperson, “The administration is currently evaluating a wide range of options, formulated by career experts, to protect American workers and job seekers, especially disadvantaged and underserved citizens.”

However, healthcare professionals fighting the COVID19 and workers in the food supply chain are exempted from the proposed suspension of US employment visas.

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While the pendulum of the COVID19 impact on US economy is oscillating over the future of H1B visa holders, their spouses on H4 visa got relief despite the unprecedented situation. The Trump administration has provided a fillip to the morale of H4 visa holders by making a U-turn in its rhetoric against their legal work permit. It is like a bolt from the blue for one lakh Indian families in the US amid so much negativity spewed by the Novel Coronavirus pandemic.

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS), a federal agency of the US government, has appealed to a US district court to reverse its decision on the Obama-era H4 EAD policy. But, the District Court of Columbia is yet to give its verdict on the EAD status of the H4 visa community. If the verdict on work permits to the H4 community is ruled in favor of the DHS, nearly one lakh Indians on H4 visa will be able to continue working in the US.

In a most recent development of the 2015 lawsuit that Save Jobs USA had filed to revoke the H4 EAD policy, the DHS argued that the premises of the lawsuit are baseless as giving work permits to H4 visa holders did not ‘irreparably’ harm American nationals. Save Jobs USA, an advocacy group of Americans for Americans, had claimed in the lawsuit that the Obama-era EAD policy for H4 visa holders robed US citizens of job opportunities in information technology.

Notably, the Department of Homeland Security had earlier eyed on March 2020 as deadline to do away with the work authorization of H4 visa holders. Since 2015, several petitions and legislations including H4 Employment Protection Act had been introduced seeking to prevent elimination of the work authorization for spouses of H1B visa professionals.

In its latest argument defying Save Jobs USA’s lawsuit, the DHS said that the claim of ‘irreparable harm’ that the H4 EAD policy has allegedly done to American workers is found merely ‘theoretical’.

On the other hand, four US Senators have exerted pressure on President Trump to suspend H1B visa, the Optional Practical Training, and other non-immigrant work permits for a year or until the COVID19-hit US economy is revived. The OPT program was approved or extended for more than 223,000 foreign students in 2019 alone.

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