The Trump administration said this week that it was considering whether to revoke an Obama-era rule that allows some spouses of “high-skilled” foreign workers to also hold jobs in the United States.
The move – stripping away privileges granted by Obama in 2015 – would make it impossible an estimated 200,000 others with similar immigration status to stay in their jobs.
It comes as the Trump administration weighs its response to a lawsuit brought against the federal government by a group of IT workers in California, who argue that the spousal visas hurt American workers.
Most of those faced with losing their right to work – if the Trump administration revokes the authorizations – would be women like Sengupta, highly educated wives who in many cases gave up their own “high-skilled” H-1B visas for the spousal work permits.
“I followed all the rules, jumped through all the hoops,” said a biomedical researcher. “I do not want to move back to India just so I can work. I cannot abandon my son and my husband.”
The work authorizations for spouses on H-4 dependent visas are more flexible than the H-1B visas because they are not bound to a single employer. The unrestricted work permits are similar to those granted to other visa-holder spouses – such as those married to foreign workers employed by multinational companies. But in those cases, the employment rights were authorized by Congress, not the president.
