In a recent ruling, a US judge has allowed partners of H-1B visa holders to work in the country. The H-1B visa is a non-immigrant visa that enables US companies to hire foreign workers in specialty occupations that require technical or theoretical expertise. The ruling is a big relief to foreign workers in the American tech sector that has seen significant retrenchments. The lawsuit filed by Save Jobs USA to dismiss the Obama-era regulation giving employment authorisation cards to partners of certain categories of H-1B visa holders was dismissed by US District Judge Tanya Chutkan. The dismissal is a significant win for the technology companies that depend on the H-1B visa to employ tens of thousands of employees every year from countries like India and China. Tech giants such as Amazon, Apple, Google, and Microsoft had opposed the lawsuit.
The ruling has led to the issuance of nearly 100,000 work authorisations to spouses of H-1B workers, providing them with financial relief. The court order also highlights that Congress has granted the Department of Homeland Security the authority to allow H-4 visa holders, like foreign nationals, to work during their stay in the United States. The judge wrote that Congress has knowingly empowered the US government to authorise employment as a permissible condition of an H-4 spouse's stay in the United States.
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Prominent community leader and advocate for immigrant rights, Ajay Bhutoria, applauded the court's decision to allow H-1B partners to work and support their families. Bhutoria said that the decision would provide much-needed relief to families struggling to make ends meet and would help to ensure that these families can stay together and thrive. Allowing H-1B spouses to work is not just a matter of economic fairness, but it is also a matter of family unity and stability. Bhutoria hopes that the decision is just the first step towards a more compassionate and equitable immigration system.
However, Save Jobs USA has announced that it plans to appeal the court ruling. Thousands of Indian IT professionals in the US have lost their jobs due to the recent layoffs at companies like Google, Microsoft, and Amazon. These professionals are now struggling to find new employment within the stipulated period under their work visas following the termination of their employment to stay in the country. According to The Washington Post newspaper, nearly 200,000 IT workers have been laid off since November last year, including some record numbers in companies like Google, Microsoft, Facebook, and Amazon. Between 30 to 40 percent of them are Indian IT professionals, a significant number of whom are on H-1B and L1 visas. The situation is getting worse for those on H-1B visas as they have to find a new job within 60 days or risk being left with no other option but to head back to India.
(With inputs from PTI)
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