Work permits for H-1B spouses could disappear, leaving lives in flux

As soon as Karishma Chawla stepped off the plane in the U.S., any semblance of independence and purpose she once had suddenly felt stripped away.

In India, she’d been a successful businesswoman who owned and managed her own restaurant. She could live in America, thanks to her husband’s status as an H-1B visa holder. But she felt trapped by her H-4 visa, which denied her the ability to work, make her own money or even have her own Social Security number.

“Initially it sounded like a nice break,” she said. “But when the reality hits you, it’s not a nice picture.”

Chawla’s first seven years in the U.S. were a blur of boredom. She’d cook, clean, sometimes take online classes and even write research papers she didn’t need to, just to keep her mind off the monotony.

“I was going crazy,” she said.

Things changed in 2015 for her and thousands of other H-4 visa holders — spouses of those with H-1B visas — when President Barack Obama created a work permit for those whose spouses are in line to get a green card. By February 2016, Chawla had gotten a job with a startup that let her work remotely from her home in San Jose or nearby coffee shops.

But now, experts say this rule is on the chopping block as the Trump administration seeks to curtail immigration in an attempt to protect American jobs.

Aside from opposition from the White House, there’s a lawsuit pending against the Department of Homeland Security that seeks to get rid of the work authorization.

The majority of H-4 visa holders are women like Chawla who came to the U.S. to keep their families together — and, perhaps, start their own path to permanent residency. They are often as educated as their spouses who are here on H-1B visas, which are heavily used in Silicon Valley to bring high-skilled foreigners into tech jobs.

But the lawsuit, originally filed by a group called Save Jobs USA in April 2015, argues that allowing H-4 visa holders to work threatens American jobs by increasing the pool of potential workers. In February, the Trump administration asked for a 60-day delay to give it “adequate time to consider the issues.”

In March, Immigration Voice, a group that advocates for immigrant rights, filed a motion to intervene in the case on behalf of two H-4 holders whose jobs and businesses were threatened by the loss of the work authorization.

In April, the administration asked for another delay, this time for 180 days. The case will be reconsidered in September.

Several women interviewed for this article said they dreaded the thought of going back to forced unemployment. Some said living on one income in the exorbitantly expensive Bay Area would lead to financial struggles for their families. Before the work authorization, some women had gone back to school, volunteered or raised children, but others said they spent time mourning the life they once had, when they weren’t reliant on their husbands for money.

“I was depressed,” said Rashi Bhatnagar, who started a Facebook group called H-4 Visa, A Curse, that has nearly 18,000 followers. “No one will give me back those years.”

And even with the employment permit, several women said it was difficult for them to break back into the workforce after years without jobs on their resumes.

Despite the lawsuit and visa holders’ fears, there has been no change yet to the state of the work authorization. And even if the Trump administration decides to unravel the rule, such an action would require a lengthy notice-and-comment period, a bureaucratic requirement that has stalled other efforts by the Trump administration to undo Obama-era rules.

“People just want to get up in the morning, take care of their family and do their job,” said Aman Kapoor, president of Immigration Voice. “Hearing that the country doesn’t want people to work is simply wrong.”

Nevertheless, he believes the writing is on the wall for the rule.

Attorney General Jeff Sessions has been an outspoken critic of the H-4 visa work authorization, saying it threatens American jobs. President Trump, an ardent critic of the H-1B visa program generally, recently endorsed an immigration bill that would slash legal immigration to the U.S. in half, starting with family-based immigration.

The crux of the lawsuit is a challenge to the Department of Homeland Security’s ability to grant work permits to immigrants through a rule rather than congressional approval, said John Miano, an attorney for Save Jobs USA.

“The number of people coming into the country through this way of regulation is of ridiculous proportions,” said Miano, who is also a fellow at the Center for Immigration Studies, which favors more restrictive immigration policies.

About 100,000 foreigners come into the U.S. on H-4 visas every year, a number that has been steadily increasing since 2012, according to the U.S. Department of State. Besides spouses, children under 21 are also eligible. In fiscal year 2017, about 36,000 spouses have been approved for work authorization — a tiny fraction of the number of foreigners entering the U.S. workforce every year.

Allowing dependents of foreign skilled workers to work is nothing out of the ordinary: Spouses and children (over the age of 21) of L-1 visa holders and EB-2 visa holders, which are both visas for skilled foreigners, are allowed to work. And while H-4 visa holders would eventually be able to work if their spouse or parent gets a green card, the wait can be a decade or more, particularly for Indian and Chinese citizens.

“In this global and mobile economy, U.S. companies trying to hire the ‘best and the brightest’ from abroad will be outbid by companies in other countries that can offer spousal work authorization,” wrote Amy Peck, an immigration attorney, in a blog post. “After all, how many among us can afford to be ‘one-income’ families in today’s economic environment?”

While she worked in a San Jose coffee shop on a recent afternoon, Chawla had a lot to do: emails to answer, clients to call, a daughter to pick up from day care and dinner to cook. After that was done, and her daughter finally tucked into bed, she opened her laptop and continued working into the night.

“I love getting back into the workforce,” she said, with her laptop and a cup of coffee in front of her. “The fact that I’m doing something substantial is so much better. It’s given me so much confidence.”

As the administration decides how to handle the lawsuit and, ultimately, what to do with the rule, all she can do is continue working and providing for her family while she still can. The same goes for for the thousands of other H-4 visa holders who have found work through the rule.

“We can’t stop our life,” Chawla said.