As per the White House regulatory agenda, the federal government’s plan to seek a ban on workers married to H-1B visa holders from US employment has been killed by the administration of President Joe Biden.

The plan – EO 12866 Regulatory Review entitled Removing H-4 Dependent Spouses from the Class of Aliens Eligible for Employment Authorization – had initially been proposed, as a federal regulation, during former President Trump’s first year in office.

The plan sought the stripping of the right to work from the spouses of H-1B visa holders. Many of such individuals work in tech companies in the US.

The H-4 rule primarily allows women that have relocated to the US with their H-1B spouses to make use of their education as well as professional training to work in the US as doctors, scientists, nurses, academics, teachers, technology professionals etc.

Many of such women are employed in high-demand, skilled labour fields like STEM, medicine, and education.

An Employment Authorization Document [EAD] allows the H-4 visa dependent spouses of H-1B visa holders to legally work in the US.

An H-4 visa holder eligible for the EAD might apply for H-4 EAD if they intend working or starting a business in the US. This comes as a huge relief for tens of thousands of H-1B workers as well as their family members.

With the Department of Homeland Affairs [DHS] finally withdrawing the H-4 EAD revocation rule, it is apparent that the DHS is not actively pursuing revocation of H-4 work permits.

Earlier, conjectures were rife that President Joe Biden might lean in favor of H-4 work authorization. As expected, the DHS seems to have been directed not to go ahead with the rule-making begun by the Trump administration.

The DHS had been keeping the revocation of the H-4 EAD as part of its agenda ever since Donald Trump had become the President of the US.

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