H-4 visa holders in the United States of America, who have been fighting for the right to continue to work in the country, have filed a lawsuit with a US district court against Mark Koumans, the Acting Director of the United States Citizenship and Immigration Service (USCIS) over the USCIS “unlawfully delaying the adjudication of non immigrant visa benefits”. In the lawsuit, they allege that there have been undue delays in the processing of their applications, and puts them in the position of losing jobs and other benefits.
People need an H-1B visa to work in the USA, and their spouses need an H-4 visa for the country. For a very long time, H-4 visa holders did not have the right to seek employment in the country. From February 25, 2015, under the administration of former US president Barack Obama, spouses of H-1B visa holders who were in the process of obtaining a green card were given an H-4 EAD, known as an employment authorisation document. US president Donald Trump has threatened multiple times to rescind the provision where H-4 visa can seek employment, and the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) of the US government said in May that it will implement a work ban on spouses of H-1B visa holders.
The lawsuit, filed by four people, say that that H-4 visas are now being processed regularly, instead of on a premium basis. It used to be done on a premium basis, along with H-1B visas.
“Unlike the H-1B, which allows the H-1B non-immigrant to work pursuant to a pending H-1B extension, no such rule exists for H-4 EAD. This creates a significant need for H-4 EAD applications to be adjudicated in a timely and expeditious manner,” the lawsuit reads.
“Sometime after March 22, 2019, on information and belief, USCIS changed their internal policy of adjudicating H-4 and H-4 EAD applications concurrently with premium processing H-1B petitions and would now begin processing such cases in regular processing separate from the H-1B,” it adds.
It states as of May 31, 2019, “USCIS processing times for an H-4 application are as long as eight and a half months.” For a H-4 EAD, the time is approximately five months, according to the lawsuit.
“Defendant’s intentional and coordinated actions have placed Plaintiffs, and numerous other H-4 and H-4 EAD applicants like Plaintiffs in the position of losing jobs, insurance, driver’s licenses, and causing a significant strain on the applicant’s personal finances as well as the American businesses that employ them,” it goes on to add.
On May 30, lawmakers Anna G Eshoo and Zoe Lofgren introduced legislation in the US House of Representatives to protect the authorisation of work of H-4 holders.
Since 2015, Indians, mostly women, have been the beneficiaries of the H-4 visa program, accounting for over 93% of the one lakh visas issued.