DHS Extends Eligibility for Employment to Certain H-4 Dependent Spouses

http://www.uscis.gov/news/dhs-extends-eligibility-employment-authorization-certain-h-4-dependent-spouses-h-1b-nonimmigrants-seeking-employment-based-lawful-permanent-residence

by thrwy10 • 11 years ago

82 31 11 years ago

uscis.gov

micheljansen• 11 years ago

This is huge. I have considered the H1b route in the past, but ended up deciding against it, as I didn't want my wife (who would not have been eligible for an H1b herself at the time) to become an "H4 housewife" (look that up if you don't know what that means).

veryluckyxyz• 11 years ago

The title here is misleading. It should say "DHS extends Eligibility for EAD of certain H4 Visa Holders."

sctb• 11 years ago

Thanks, we updated the title.

chocks• 11 years ago

This is really good news for a lot of folks who were unable to work previously due to the H4 restriction even with years of experience behind them.

ropiku• 11 years ago

*Only those with an I-140 approved (already in the green card process) or other conditions. That's still a good step.

solutionyogi• 11 years ago

Good news but won't apply to a lot of H4 visa holders.

It's only applicable to those folks who have been on H1B over 6 years OR have an approved I-140.

For those who don't know, employment based green card has three stages

1. Labor Certification (PERM)

2. Immigrant Petition for Alien Worker - I-140 - This stage checks whether the company filing your petition is legitimate and there is no fraud.

3. Application to register permanent residence - I-485. This stage checks whether the person applying has a good character, is not criminal etc. etc.

Getting through 1st and 2nd stage takes 1 to 3 years. It's the 3rd stage which has a long wait, mainly for people from India or China.

See: http://travel.state.gov/content/visas/english/law-and-policy...

As per that link, USCIS is processing cases of folks who applied in 2007 (for EB2) and 2004 (for EB3).

This is definitely a huge relief for those folks who have decided to apply for permanent residency and have been stuck in stage 3 for many years.

P.S.: I know about this because I am from India and went through a grueling 10 year immigration process to get my green card.

samstokes2• 11 years ago

It's only applicable to those folks who have been on H1B over 6 years and have applied for permanent residency.

I read it as over 6 years or applied for permanent residency:

""" Eligible individuals include certain H-4 dependent spouses of H-1B nonimmigrants who:

- Are the principal beneficiaries of an approved Form I-140, Immigrant Petition for Alien Worker; or

- Have been granted H-1B status under sections 106(a) and (b) of the American Competitiveness in the Twenty-first Century Act of 2000 as amended by the 21st Century Department of Justice Appropriations Authorization Act. The Act permits H-1B nonimmigrants seeking lawful permanent residence to work and remain in the United States beyond the six-year limit on their H-1B status. """

ojbyrne• 11 years ago

The only way an H-1B can stay beyond six years is if they have applied for permanent residency.

vbcr• 11 years ago

Its not that bad in the recent years. I applied for my labor in aug 2012 (step 1), it was approved in less than 3 months. later applied for I140 (step 2), it was too approved in less than 4 months. Since I have an approved I140, my wife (an H4 holder) can apply for EAD under this new rule. Also the rule states that its either approved I140 OR H1B over 6 years.

jakozaur3• 11 years ago

You got lucky.

Right now the average processing time for PERM is 8 months (235 days): http://dolstats.com/ and it used to be worse (government shutdown). Also preparing PERM takes some time and it can't be speeded up. So it can take well over a year just to get PERM and it doesn't take it account risk that you will have to start over for any reason (e.g. change jobs, change in company legal or organizational structure, HR got busy, someone involved in the process like manager change jobs).

spiralpolitik• 11 years ago

PERM fixed the labor certification bottleneck, but the adjustment of status bottleneck is where people now get caught up, especially those in EB3 and/or coming from a high demand country (China, India, and Mexico).

Without a real fix to the immigration system that will remain the bottleneck for over 90% of employment based applications.

transitorykris• 11 years ago

"USCIS estimates the number of individuals eligible to apply for employment authorization under this rule could be as high as 179,600 in the first year and 55,000 annually in subsequent years."

http://www.uscis.gov/news/dhs-extends-eligibility-employment...

san86• 11 years ago

This is good news indeed. I moved back to India 1.5 years ago because my wife could not work there. Not sad I moved back, but yes, a lot of people would be really really happy today.

jakozaur3• 11 years ago

Good step, but still majority of H4 holders will have to wait at least 1-3 years to get PERM and I-140 approved.

Unfortunately, immigration situation for foreign ambitious married couple is really harsh in recent years. Even if both qualified for H1B than you still have 50% chance in lottery just to process your application... 25% chance that both of them can work.

While there, getting job visa sponsorship on H4 can also be hard. Even junior software engineers in Bay Area who can get job easily, get mysterious rejections at very end of process or honest reply "sorry we would hire you, but waiting several months to apply in April and get you work in October with 50% chance and lot of fees is not a good deal. You're good, but not that great. We can't afford to wait".

I know several stories of people who left USA for good, b/c of that reasons. Their offers/positions where quite generous at top tech companies/startups.

Bay Area is the best ecosystem, but maybe with immigration and property market situation it just reached the peak and it wouldn't get any better?

georgehm• 11 years ago

This thought has been lingering since this ruling was sent to the OMB for approval. How will it affect existing H1/other wages? As the OP says, DHS is expecting 180k ead applications this year. Thats a large pool of qualified folks with potentially prior work experience. Thoughts?

raincom• 11 years ago

Well, this helps Indian offshoring gaints like Infosys, TCS as they are struggling to find H1s to fill spots onsite. And the thing about Infosys, TCS, Wipro, Cognizant, etc is this: they just need warm bodies onsite for billable hours.

Yes, wages will be depressed in big corp software and IT. To what extent, I don't know.

Top tier talent won't be affected that much: but how many companies need top tier talent? Or how much the top tier talent constitutes US IT/Software market? Maybe, less than 10 percent.

houshuang• 11 years ago

I'm currently doing my PhD in Canada, and here, spouses of the above categories automatically get open work permits for as long as the student/work permit of the principal applicant. Heading towards the job market, there are lot's of opportunities in the US, both within academia and industry, but the fact that my wife would not be able to work is a huge deterrent for us. Add to that, my wife is not in an industry where she would be likely to get a company sponsoring her for an independent work permit.

smoothpooper• 11 years ago

Don't want to hurt all the folks whom this will immensely help. But isn't this going to kill a lot of low cost permanent jobs here in US.

So currently we are still debating on whether we want to raise the H1 cap because that will encourage body shops and more cheap labour but isn't this going to take away the low paying US jobs as well.

So say there are 65,000 ppl coming into US on H1 every year, 40,000 of these say apply for green card and on an average say it takes 8 years to get green card and 2 years to get I-140. So every year now well be making 40,000 more ppl eligible and when we start we already will have a surplus of 40,000 * 6

Plus if I am not wrong with H1 you atleast have to prove that you cannot find someone who can do this job and that's why you are bringing someone from outside. But with this you are basically making ppl with any qualification eligible for a job.

I personally would have liked the govt to hike the H1 to ensure that the students who study here won't have to leave because of the lack of enough number of visa's.

foobar2020• 11 years ago

The fact that H1B spouses cannot be legally employed is just stupid.

The US needs to get its immigration together. Fix the law, decrease or increase the cap, stop the H1B program - but please be reasonable. Quality immigrants are more likely to have quality spouses. On the other hand, a mediocre programmer with his housewife will happily jump on the H1B train even if it means she will be unemployed, because that is already a huge quality of life boost for both them.

I would never take the H1B route if I were married, unless I was sure that my wife is OK with that. And I would have to be really, really sure - because that's locking into a situation for years.

uisiu• 11 years ago

"Quality immigrants are more likely to have quality spouses"

This is just utter nonsense or you are out of your mind. Why quality immigrant would have quality spouse ?

Technical ( & Business) abilities differ for each individual.

I frankly admit that people from my country just want to get here and live good life

PS - I am from India.

Work hours are less in US, commute is short, quality life, beautiful country. By very nature Indians spend less and save more. So even with exorbitant lifestyle you still save money.

I have seen extremely medeocre people from AndraPradesh, Maharashtra, Chennai, Indore, Delhi working on H1B here. I will tell you something additional. Lately, there is trend going that beside programmers, engineers Business system analysts, production support are also going to h1b people.

My prior employer had 100+ BSA on h1b. Why in the world you need BSA on H1b ? What is special occupation and ability? Nobody knows. It is honestly massive scam and everyone is milking the cow while they can.

jakozaur3• 11 years ago

Well if you're concern is that they will take low paid jobs, feel free to put restrictions on that. Or be able for married couple to apply jointly for the visas.

At very least making H4 -> H1B conversions cap-exempt would be a great move.

Anyway, no matter if you are for or against migration the current system is very antique and counter-logical in so many places. E.g. brilliant, with track record entrepreneurs are having hard time, while still 60k green cards are given to random ppl on earth. Including those with little qualifications, income and lack of basic English skills.

The opportunity for improvement is huge. Pretty much USA immigration feels like using some email on time-shared legacy mainframe, where rest of the world uses GMail/Inbox or something else in cloud.

sonabinu• 11 years ago

If you have an EB-3 (India) filing it can take upto 20 years to get your green card. A spouse who is here (usually a woman) can practically lose a big part of her life just waiting for the GC to come through. By then whatever skills you possess will be outdated

rad123• 11 years ago

I am on H4 and my husband is here in USA for 6.8 years.But we are in of our first stage of Labor certification. So can I still apply for H1B?

nyrulez• 11 years ago

Once his I140 gets approved, you should be. You should talk to his GC lawyer.

spiked55• 11 years ago

Wonder how long it's going to take for the application to be approved once it's submitted. Also, what restrictions are going to be present with working on the EAD? Is it unrestricted? STEM only? Will the same rules apply as if the EAD was received by the spouse after an approved I-485?

deepicasso• 11 years ago

I'd really like to know this. I've been working under the STEM (plus extension) for over two years now -- my work permit expires in July. I believe that after "using up" my STEM, I wont be eligible for another STEM-associated EAD card, per my university's international students office. I wonder if that will affect my eligibility for this H1B-dependant work permit.

achanda358• 11 years ago

Is there a chance that a later president might revoke this?

milnade• 11 years ago

Does this apply even if the spouse has their own independent H1? And they are the primary beneficiary of their husbands I 140?

swethasam• 11 years ago

Does this law also permit H1B employees with i140 Approval to apply for EAD or is it just the spouse?

ashwinigursale• 11 years ago

I have H1B visa 7th year now got ext. beyond 6 years based on AC 21, but my previous employer withdraw my I-140 . Can I still file H4EAD for my wife as I extended my H1B beyond 6 years based on AC21?

DHS Extends Eligibility for Employment to Certain H-4 Dependent Spouses

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