Christian Schmidt, Attorney at Law

  • Services
  • Practice Areas
    • Family Immigration
    • Business Immigration
    • Investor Visa
    • U.S. Citizenship
    • Deferred Action - DACA
  • Profile
  • Blog
  • Resources
  • Contact

Certain H-4 Spouses Eligible to Apply for Employment Authorization Starting on May 26, 2015

2/25/2015

1 Comment

 
The U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services announced yesterday that certain spouses of H-1B specialty occupation workers will be eligible to apply for employment authorization starting May 26, 2015. The new rule provides work permits for H-4 spouses of H-1B workers who are on the pathway to permanent residence, but who cannot yet apply for their green cards due to backlogs.

H-4 spouses will be eligible to apply for employment authorization if:
  • His/her H-1B spouse is the principal beneficiary of an approved I-140 petition; or
  • His/her H-1B spouse is the beneficiary of an approved H-1B extension past the 6th year maximum because at least 365 days have elapsed since an unexpired PERM labor certification application, or a pending I-140 petition, was filed for the H-1B worker.

The new rule has the potential to benefit the families of H-1B workers whose green card processes have been delayed significantly due to the annual limits on immigrant visa availability.  In particular, this benefits the H-4 spouses of H-1B workers chargeable to India or China, whose I-140 petitions were filed in the EB-2 or EB-3 preference categories and may be backlogged for many years. However, the new rule does not apply to H-4 spouses of H-1B1 (Chile/Singapore), H-2 or H-3 nonimmigrants.


1 Comment

    Author

    I am an immigration attorney serving the greater San Francisco Bay Area and beyond.

    Archives

    January 2021
    December 2018
    May 2018
    September 2017
    January 2017
    January 2016
    September 2015
    July 2015
    May 2015
    April 2015
    February 2015
    January 2015
    November 2014

    Categories

    All

    RSS Feed

Christian Schmidt, Immigration Attorney


3118 California Street
Berkeley, CA 94703

phone: 415.350.2060     fax: 415.449.6666     info@lawbridges.com
Picture