No automatic renewal of work permit for H-1B spouses: Court

Such A Process Available Only To H-1B Visa

- Lubna.Kably

A US district court made the observation while hearing a lawsuit filed by 45 H-4 visa holders, who held these visas in their capacity as spouses of H-1B visa holders. The plaintiffs, many of them Indian spouses, alleged that the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) had ‘unlawfully withheld’ from them a 180-day automatic extension of work authorisation upon the expiration of their employment authorisation document (EADs)

A US district court has observed that H-4 visa holders are not entitled to automatic renewal of their employment authorisation document (EADs).

To mitigate difficulties arising from decades-long green card backlog for immigrants from certain countries such as India, the Barack Obama administration had introduced the EAD programme in 2015. This enabled spouses of certain categories of H-1B visa holders (such as those on track for a green card) to apply for an EAD, which enabled them to work.