US: 100K H4 Visa Holders To Get Automatic Work Authorization

In a major relief for H-1B visa holders, a White House-backed bipartisan deal has been unveiled which says about 100,000 H-4 visa holders, would be granted an automatic work authorization. H4 visa holders are spouses and children of H-1B visa holders.

This move is a piece of great news for thousands of Indian IT professionals who are on a long wait for Green cards, whose spouses cannot work and aged-out children face the threat of deportation.

Another good news for Indian American immigrants is that the bill provides ageing-out protection for children of long-term H-1B visa holders provided kids have maintained H4 status for eight years.

‘For too long, going back decades, the immigration system has been broken. It’s time to fix it…It will make our country safer, make our border more secure, treat people fairly and humanely while preserving legal immigration, consistent with our values as a nation,’ US President Joe Biden said in a statement.

Along woth the automatic work authorization for about 100,000 H-4 spouses and children of H1-B non-immigrant visa holders, this bill also provides work authorization to approximately 25,000 K-1, K-2, and K-3 nonimmigrant visa holders (fiance or spouse and children of US citizens) per year.

The White House said the bill provides relief to over 250,000 individuals who came to the United States as children on their parents’ work visas.

“These individuals have resided lawfully in the United States since they were children and have established lives here in the US but have since “aged out” of continuing to receive lawful status through their parents and have no other means of lawfully remaining the US with their families.

Noncitizens who lived lawfully in the United States as a dependent child of an employment-based nonimmigrant for at least 8 years before turning 21 will be eligible to remain temporarily in the United States with work authorisation. In support of family unity, the bill makes clear that certain noncitizens can travel to the United States on a temporary visitor (B) visa to visit their family members’, the bill said.