New Delhi: The families of thousands of Indian hi-tech workers in the United States could get affected as the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) of the US government is set to implement a work ban on spouses of H-1B visa holders this month.
A work visa programme, H-4 EAD (Employment Authorisation Document) was launched by the previous Obama administration to leverage skilled spouses of H-1B visa holders and address skill shortage in the technology domain. Indian female engineers have largely benefited from the H-4 EAD visa programme, taking over 90 percent of the 1.2 lakh visas issued since 2015.
A notice was issued on May 22 by the US government to kick in public consultations to ban the H-4 EAD and address skill shortage in the technology domain.
After Donald Trump took over as the President of the United States of America, the immigration rules have been tightened to secure employment for the citizens of the US. The US government now prefers to give H-1B visas to those who hold master’s degrees from the US and not from any other country.
However, migration analysts opine that the rule might not get implemented this summer. Policy watchers say that even if this proposal goes through, it would take a while for it to actually take effect.
