A breakthrough for spouses of H-1B workers

“The H-1B visa is called the 'genius visa' for a reason.”

— Michio Kaku

 

By Alex P. Vidal

 

IF you are a Filipino H-1B visa holder in the technology sector and your spouse intends to work in the United States, this good news if for you—or both of you.

In what was considered as a major court victory for big technological companies, a Washington judge has dismissed a suit challenging the rights of highly skilled H-1B visa holders’ spouses to work in the US.

On March 28, US District Judge Tanya Chutkan issued a decision upholding the Obama-era rule under which the U.S. Department of Homeland Security has issued H-4 visas to the spouses of hundreds of thousands of H-1B workers in the US.

Seventy percent of whom reportedly hold science and engineering jobs in the tech sector, confirmed Bloomberg’s Bob Van Voris.

It was learned that Amazon.com Inc., Apple Inc., Google, Microsoft Corp. were among the companies who urged the judge to let the rule stand.

The tech companies have argued that the ability of H-1B holders’ spouses to also get jobs in the US has been a major attraction for highly skilled foreign workers, according to Bloomberg.

In her ruling, the Bloomberg reported, Chutkan rejected arguments by Save Jobs USA, a group representing Southern California Edison computer professionals who said they had been replaced by H-1B visa-holders. 

 

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Save Jobs had reportedly claimed Homeland Security wasn’t legally permitted to put the rule in place and sought to eliminate work authorizations for more than 90,000 new H-4 visa holders.

“Plaintiff’s primary contention is that Congress has never granted DHS authority to allow foreign nationals, like H-4 visa-holders, to work during their stay in the United States,” the judge wrote. 

“That contention runs headlong into the text of the (Immigration and Nationality Act), decades of executive-branch practice, and both explicit and implicit congressional ratification of that practice.”

A lawyer for Save Jobs said the group would likely appeal. “We now have complete chaos as the federal courts have seized control over the immigration system from Congress and handed that authority over to DHS,” said the lawyer, John Miano.

Tech companies were among a group, including the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, that filed a brief in the case arguing that eliminating H-4 visas “would not only siphon off U.S. gross domestic product, but gift that productivity—and the innovation that comes with it—to other nations.”

They said that 87 percent of families affected had made important life decisions, including whether to buy a house or whether to have a child, based on the ability of a skilled-worker’s spouse to be employed under H-4.

Chutkan had previously dismissed the suit, ruling that Save Jobs lacked standing to challenge the H-4 rule. But a federal appeals court reversed that ruling in 2019 and revived the case.

The case is Save Jobs USA v. U.S. Department of Homeland Security, 15-cv-00615, U.S. District Court, District of Columbia (Washington).

 

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(The author, who is now based in New York City, used to be the editor of two local dailies in Iloilo.—Ed)