INSUBCONTINENT EXCLUSIVE:
Influential lawmakers and representative of the American IT industry, including Facebook, have opposed the Trump administration's proposed
plan to withdraw work permits to H-4 visa holders, who are spouses of H-1B visa holders."Rescinding this rule and removing tens of thousands
of people from the American workforce would be devastating to their families, and would hurt our economy, Silicon Valley-based FWD.US, which
was founded by top IT companies like Facebook, Google and Microsoft, said in a report released yesterday.It comes a day after the American
media reported a letter from the US Citizenship and Immigration Services about its decision to terminate the Obama-era regulation that
granted work permits to H-4 visa holders, a majority of whom are Indian professionals, and are mostly women."This policy is important
because it allows certain individuals to secure gainful employment without having to wait for their spouses to receive permanent residency,
many of whom are experiencing a processing backlog of more than a decade," FWD.US argued.Roughly 80 per cent of H-4 visa holders are women,
and many had successful jobs and held advanced degrees in their native countries before coming to the US with their H-1B spouses, it
said.Without the H-4 work authorisation rule, the spouses of H-1B high-skilled employees would be unable to work legally and contribute
financially to their households and communities, as well as pay taxes on their wages, unless they had alternate immigration avenues for work
authorisation, FWD.US added."H-4 work authorisation has allowed an estimated 100,000 people to begin working and further integrate into
their communities," the report quoted a group of 15 top American lawmakers from California as saying.In a letter to Homeland Security
Secretary Kirstjen M Nielson, the lawmakers argued that the Obama-era H-4 rule lessened the burden on thousands of H-1B recipients and their
families while they transition from non-immigrants to lawful permanent residents by allowing their families to earn dual incomes.Many
entrepreneurs used their Employment Authorization Documents (EADs) to start businesses that now employ US citizens
"Eliminating this benefit removes an important incentive for highly skilled immigrants to remain here to invest in and grow our economy to
the benefit of all Americans," the letter signed by, among others, Congresswoman Anna Eshoo and Congressman Raja Krishnamoorthi, said."The
H-4 rule is a matter of both economic competitiveness and maintaining family unity
The United States has already invested in these workers with years of expertise and we should not be sending them abroad to innovate and use
their experience and talents against US businesses
We ask that you reconsider the revocation of the H-4 rule," the lawmakers said in the letter dated March 5.As the issue affects a large
number of highly qualified Indian professionals, mostly women, the Indian Embassy too has been engaging with lawmakers and officials of the
Trump Administration."Eliminating work authorisation for roughly 100,000 H-4 visa holders, most of whom are educated women like me, will
hurt our country and have negative consequences on tens of thousands of American families
We must protect legal immigration channels that will help the US remain at the forefront of innovation for generations to come," said Dr
Maria Navas-Moreno, Co Founder of Lever Photonics and an H-4 visa holder.As employers continue to navigate the outdated immigration system,
the administration should "reconsider its likely rescission" of the H-4 visa rule, that granted work authorisation to a limited subset of
spouses and was critical in helping employers recruit and retain a high-skilled workforce, as well as in keeping the United States
competitive in the global innovation race, Government Affairs at the Information Technology Industry Council director Karolina Filipiak
