Spouses of H-1B visa holders can now work in US

Washington, March 30

In a relief for foreign workers in the tech sector, a judge has ruled that spouses of H-1B visa holders can work in the United States. In the process, US District Judge Tanya Chutkan dismissed a lawsuit filed by Save Jobs USA which had approached the court to dismiss the Obama-era regulation that gave employment authorisation cards to spouses of certain categories of H-1B visa holders.

Tech companies such as Amazon, Apple, Google and Microsoft had opposed the lawsuit. The US has so far issued nearly 1,00,000 work authorisations to spouses of H-1B workers, a significantly large number of whom are Indians.

Judge Chutkan said the primary contention of Save Jobs USA was that Congress had never granted the Department of Homeland Security authority to allow foreign nationals, like H-4 visa-holders, to work during their stay in the US. But that contention ran headlong into the text of the Immigration and Nationality Act, decades of executive-branch practice and explicit and implicit congressional ratification of that practice.

Ajay Bhutoria, an advocate for immigrant rights, applauded the decision by the court. The H-1B visa programme is designed to allow skilled foreign workers to come to the US and work for American companies. However, until recently, their spouses were not allowed to work, which often placed a significant financial burden on their families.

“Allowing H-1B spouses to work is not just a matter of economic fairness, but also of family unity and stability. I applaud the court’s decision, and I hope that this is just the first step towards a more compassionate and equitable immigration system,” Bhutoria said.

Save Jobs USA said it planned to appeal against the court ruling.