PremiumNEW DELHI: Search giant Google and 30 other companies are rallying to support a law that allows the spouses of H-1B visa holders in the US to work in the country. The company filed a legal brief in a lawsuit called Save Jobs USA vs US department of homeland security. The suit argues that H-4 visas, which covers spouses of H-1B visa holders, provide unfair competition to American jobs.
The brief filed by Google was in support of H-4 visa holders being allowed to work in the country. The company has also been supported by tech giants like Apple, Twitter, Amazon, and more. “The case in question is an attempt to end the issuing of work authorization (H-4 EAD) for certain spouses of high-skilled talent who have come to this country on H-1B visas. In other words, it seeks to end the ability of highly-skilled immigrants’ partners from working in the United States," Catherine Lacavera, vice president, Legal, at Google, wrote in a blog post.
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Premium Premium Lacavera also noted that the H-4 EAD programme provides work authorization to over 90,000 individuals, over 90% of whom are women. “Furthermore, if the programme is lost, the practical effect is that we welcome a person to the US to work but we make it harder for their spouse to work. That hurts their family, impacts our ability to compete for talent, and harms our economy," she wrote.
Companies like Google gain heavily from the US' H-1B and H-4 visa programmes. The H-1B visa is a non-immigrant visa that allows US companies to employ foreign workers in specialty occupations that require theoretical or technical expertise. The H-4 programme is to support their dependent family members’ opportunity to work in the country.
The two visa programmes had come under threat last year from former US President Donald Trump, who was against them. Trump even imposed a ban on the H-1B visa programme, among others, during the pandemic. The ban lapsed only last month and wasn’t renewed by the new Joe Biden administration.
“A fair immigration system is necessary to preserve America’s laudable history of welcoming people from different places and to fuel a virtuous cycle of innovation. Unfortunately, an impending court case is putting both at risk at the most inopportune moment," wrote Lacavera.
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