A top American association of immigration lawyers has filed a class action lawsuit against the Department of Homeland Security for extraordinary delays in processing employment authorisation documents (EADs) of spouses of foreign workers in the country on H-1B and L1 visas, a significantly large number of whom are technology professionals from India.
"The delays that H-4 and L-2 non-immigrants are facing needlessly place families in financial limbo," said Jennifer Minear, president of American Immigration Lawyers Association or AILA, which has filed the class action lawsuit against the DHS along with Wasden Banias.
The DHS has the legal tools and authority to grant work authorisation to impacted individuals whose financial security is hanging in the balance, and it should immediately begin to use those tools to provide solutions, Minear said.
The DHS can and must revoke the unnecessary biometric requirements for H-4 and L-2 non-immigrants, provide automatic work authorisation while it processes EAD renewal requests, and allow EAD applicants to file their renewal applications sooner than 180 days prior to expiration to prevent gaps in work authorisation, she demanded.
Jesse Bless, AILA's director of Federal Litigation said that in 2019, the Trump administration implemented a new biometric requirement for H-4 and L-2 and other dependents seeking to extend their stay in the US.
These new requirements added to the already extraordinary processing delays, which were further exacerbated by COVID-19 restrictions. The process to attain work authorisation should not put families at the risk of immense loss of income and instability, he said.
"There are reasonable and immediate steps that the DHS can take to make certain that visa holders meet requirements without imposing needless suffering. We hope to work with the government on immediate solutions to get these individuals back to work," Bless said.
(Only the headline and picture of this report may have been reworked by the Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Dear Reader,
Business Standard has always strived hard to provide up-to-date information and commentary on developments that are of interest to you and have wider political and economic implications for the country and the world. Your encouragement and constant feedback on how to improve our offering have only made our resolve and commitment to these ideals stronger. Even during these difficult times arising out of Covid-19, we continue to remain committed to keeping you informed and updated with credible news, authoritative views and incisive commentary on topical issues of relevance.
We, however, have a request.
As we battle the economic impact of the pandemic, we need your support even more, so that we can continue to offer you more quality content. Our subscription model has seen an encouraging response from many of you, who have subscribed to our online content. More subscription to our online content can only help us achieve the goals of offering you even better and more relevant content. We believe in free, fair and credible journalism. Your support through more subscriptions can help us practise the journalism to which we are committed.
Support quality journalism and subscribe to Business Standard.
Digital Editor
RECOMMENDED FOR YOU