Providing much-needed relief to foreign IT sector workers in America, a US district judge has ruled that spouses of H-1B visa holders can work in the United States.
Judge Tanya Chutkan dismissed a lawsuit filed by Save Jobs USA, which had approached the court to dismiss the Obama-era regulation that allows spouses of H-1B holders to work in the USA.
Big IT companies like Amazon, Apple, Google, and Microsoft had already opposed the lawsuit. To date, the US has granted nearly 100,000 work visas to the spouses of H-1B employees, with a notable majority of those individuals being Indians.
Judge Chutkan’s ruling maintained that the core argument from Save Jobs USA is that Congress never granted permission to the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to allow foreign nationals with H-4 visas to work in the U.S. during their stay.
The judge declared that Congress explicitly gave the US Government the right to authorize H-4 spouses to take on employment in the US during their stay.
In her ruling, Judge Chutkan stated that the Department of Homeland Security and its predecessors had allowed not only students but also their spouses and dependents to take on employment.
Source: The Hindu
