NEW DELHI: In a big relief to thousands of Indians who hold H-1B visas, a US judge has ruled that their spouses can work in the country. In her landmark ruling, US district judge Tanya Chutkan upheld the Obama-era regulation that gave employment authorisation cards to spouses of certain categories of H-1B visa holders and dismissed the lawsuit filed by Save Jobs USA, a group representing IT professionals who claim they lost their jobs to foreign workers.
The H-1B visa programme is designed to allow skilled foreign workers to come to the US and work for American companies. Earlier, their spouses were not allowed to work in the US but an Obama-era legislation changed that by granting employment authorisation to partners of H-1B visa holders, who tend to be highly educated and have considerable work experience in their home countries.
The US has issued nearly 100,000 work authorisations to spouses of H-1B workers. The ruling is also a victory for big technology companies such as Amazon, Apple, Microsoft and Google that employ highly skilled H-1 B visa holders. The tech companies had argued that spouse visas were a major attraction for skilled work force in their companies.
Save Jobs USA said it will appeal against the court ruling. According to the group, the US Department of Homeland Security (DHS) could not have legally given work authorisation to H-4 visa holders. However, the judge did not accept the argument while noting that DHS and its predecessors have authorised employment not just for students but also for their spouses and dependents.
Judge Chutkan had dismissed the suit by Save Jobs USA earlier as well, saying it lacked standing to challenge the H-4 rule. But, a federal appeals court reversed that ruling in 2019 and revived the case.