On one side I'm extremely happy that this might come to pass (might is a keyword in immigration legislation) because I personally know people who have been affected by this and can't work even though they're there. It's extremely frustrating for them to say the least, and extremely silly that people who want to be productive members of society can't.<p>On the other hand, I'm not sure how fair it is to all the people who applied for an H-1B last year and this year who were forced to participate in the H-1B lottery and couldn't get into the quota of 85000. Now one winning lottery spot could be worth two workers instead of one. Who's to say that the spouse, who didn't even have to go through the trouble of finding an employer, convincing them to sponsor, applying, waiting for the lottery results, etc is more deserving of a work permit than those who did but just weren't lucky enough to win the quota lottery?<p>I'm ashamed that I'm thinking of something so petty when I should be happy for those people, but having lost the lottery once, I can't help but feel a small tinge of jealousy and resentment.<p>I would be happier if none of this was an issue in the first place.
Great! I had so many colleagues in this situation - invariably it made starting a family more attractive as one spouse was basically stay-at-home anyway.<p>I understand that Americans want jobs for Americans, but bringing in immigrants and letting them work means you get taxpayers whose education was subsidized by a foreign government. They basically are net contributors to the economy upon their first paycheck. The higher skilled they are, the more dramatic this effect. It seems like a huge net win to the US economy.<p>I'm sure there's a good counterargument to this, but I'm biased being an immigrant myself.
Speaking as someone who moved to America on H1B with my wife - this is promising.<p>In the back of my head, I'm preparing to go back next year if my awesome wife can't find anything to do - missed this year's H1 cap already.<p>It's frustrating to watch her get depressed sitting at home and feeling like she's missing out. It's making me angry to come home every day to find her turning her energy inwards into frustration.<p>She's more talented than me, just not in tech - she's into ads.<p>The ad industry does not have the patience of the IT industry when it comes to keeping a req open for 6 months while the H1 processes.<p>Australia & Canada are attractive options in my radar.<p>At least, I'm sure I can work on hadoop from anywhere and get paid to ship open source code.
The proposal does not give a blanket approval for spouses of H1-B workers to work. It only allows spouses, for those H1-B holders who have maxed out the original 6 years on their visa and are now awaiting their turn in line for Green Cards (which for India and China is ridiculously long).<p>But it still is progress.<p>I'd hope they remove country based discrimination in EB visas. And better yet pass immigration reform sooner rather than later.<p>Edit:
Here is the link to the original proposal: <a href="http://www.reginfo.gov/public/do/eAgendaViewRule?pubId=20121." rel="nofollow">http://www.reginfo.gov/public/do/eAgendaViewRule?pubId=20121...</a>.
Having been through the process of being on an L-1 and having an L-2 wife who is permitted to work, it creates an interesting dynamic. The primary visaholder is tied to the sponsoring company - if they lose their job, both visas disappear. They clearly have less leverage in negotiating salary with their employer, with really only the visa requirement that they be paid a fair rate to protect their interests. The limited transferability of H1Bs gives them a little leverage - L-1s have no such negotiating power, other than the market rate for their skills overseas.<p>The working spouse, on the other hand, is a relatively free participant in the employment market, so has far more leverage - able to freely negotiate salary (or to start a company of their own, or whatever). Of course they have hanging over them the risk that the master visa might go away at any time and they would be forced to stop working (and probably sell up and leave the country), but there is at least employment protection law to stop employers discriminating against a person who has the legal right to work on the basis of how they acquired that right.
I hope it is true this time.<p>I sent a question a few days ago:
Ask HN: How many H1B holders here taking the H4 "punishment"?
<a href="https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7547839" rel="nofollow">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7547839</a><p>The current H4 only offers a disruption to the family. Nothing else.
I was an H-1B worker myself and was following this rule making progress. The rule was not something new -- it was lobbied by big name software companies, and has been on DHS/USCIS's policy making agenda since 2011 at least:<p><a href="http://www.reginfo.gov/public/servlet/ForwardServlet?SearchTarget=Agenda&textfield=1615-AB92" rel="nofollow">http://www.reginfo.gov/public/servlet/ForwardServlet?SearchT...</a><p>The rule, as its currently proposed form, does not provide automatic work authorization to spouses of all H-1B workers. Rather, it allows "certain" H-4 spouses to be employment authorized. The subset of eligible H-4 spouses are defined as those "who have begun the process of seeking lawful permanent resident status through employment" and apparently before finishing it. Specifically, their H-1B spouses had to be in H-1B status for more than 6 years and are the beneficiaries of certain pending or approved employment-based immigrant petitions or labor certification applications.<p>Congress employs numeric control over the number of employment-based green cards that can be issued each year. The process is very complicated, and the wait time is highly dependent on the country in which a beneficiary was born and the category of green card he/she sought. For beneficiaries from most countries, the wait for an employment-based green card (once you had an approved petition) is far less than 6 years. The only country that currently suffers a more-than-6-year backlog is India, whose current line for the "EB2" category is 10 years, and "EB3" 11 years. The current "backlog" is published by Department of State each month:<p><a href="http://travel.state.gov/content/visas/english/law-and-policy/bulletin/2014/visa-bulletin-for-may-2014.html" rel="nofollow">http://travel.state.gov/content/visas/english/law-and-policy...</a><p>Most applicants from countries other than those listed can finish their green card process well within the H-1B's 6-year limit, and do not benefit from this proposed rule.
Link to the whitehouse factsheet announcing this:
<a href="http://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2014/04/07/fact-sheet-strengthening-entrepreneurship-home-and-abroad" rel="nofollow">http://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2014/04/07/fact-s...</a><p>Relevant excerpt from the section "Attracting the World’s Best and Brightest":
<i>These proposed regulations include rules authorizing employment for spouses of certain high-skill workers on H-1B visas, as well as enhancing opportunities for outstanding professors and researchers.</i><p>As to what <i>certain</i> means remains to be seen.
Uh, don't remind me of H-1B. I am currently on F1 working as a software developer for a Fortune 500 company (with work permit / OPT), and my consulting agency said they'll apply for a H-1B visa for me, so I was very happy.<p>Turns out, they actually tried to extend my work permit (which they couldn't in my case since I didn't actually graduate with CSci degree) and now I have my work permit expiring in July, and not sure if I'll be able to stay in the country because I'm not sure if H-1B visa will arrive in time.
I maybe pessimistic, but I haven't seen any progress in H-4 employment proposals recently and the article doesn't point to any particular proposal.<p>The Senate bill for Immigration reform passed the Senate last June, but the House isn't taking a vote on it.<p>The house in turn had similar proposals last year in committee, but House leadership has no plans of putting them to a general vote at least till November elections.
My lawyer has been quoting this "may soon be allowed to work" for more than 3 years. My wife & I have given up on it. She's resigned to volunteering & working on hobbies. Considering how split the government is over these matters I doubt we'll see any reform in the next 5 years.
It's a good news. It's one of the main reasons not to even consider moving to USA. Now, let's just fix ridiculously high taxes compared to Europe, sane healthcare system, work conditions and education system, and you might be up to something.
Progress...I have friends that went to the US on a similar Visa. She works..he sits at home. The raw skills are there: This is a guy that can take stones from a nearby hill, build a multi-storey natural stone house and have it pass structural and regulation specs. Now he sits at home and is bored out of his mind because he isn't even allowed to build his neighbors drive-way for a couple of bucks.<p>I get the need to protect the local people's jobs but that is just criminal waste in my eyes. Both the ability and the willingness to contribute towards the GDP/country is there and yet regulation forces him to watch youtube/paint dry all day.
I don't understand immigration restrictions at all. If the US is afraid foreigners are coming to "take our jobs" and is concerned about its citizens well being, then why isn't it concerned with the fact that cheap foreign labor could save money to millions of americans while it currently doesn't, since immigration is restricted? Or if it is concerned that foreigners are going to use the social safety net without providing any value, how about not providing it to foreigners?<p>There's absolutely no grounds for restricting immigration. The US was built on immigrants and now somehow it is no longer a viable policy?
>The U.S. is planning changes to the immigration rules that will make the country more attractive to talented foreign entrepreneurs and other high-skilled immigrants, the White House said in a statement Monday.<p>Yeah, let's go ahead make it more attractive for talented foreign entrepreneurs, BUT let's only offer a few 65,000 H-1B visas per year... What's the point of making it more attractive if there aren't enough H-1B visas to go around in the first place. Seems some what cynical to me.
I like Massachusetts trade off, if you are going to allow an influx of H1-B's and immigrants, do away with the non-compete.<p>All it does is allow skim some cream of the top and control labor through myriad of shell companies and outsourcers. The real value if the initial hook up of the labor to the organization. There is no reason to behold a "contractor" to a company.
Next year for certain source countries, some big corps will only sponsor male ICT workers where both they <i>and</i> their spouse have marketable skills. Upon arriving in the US, if the spouse doesn't work for half-wages at the sponsoring corp, the sponsored worker will have their job cancelled, resetting their wait for a green card.
Whether you realize it or not, the US competes with many countries for top talent, including Australia, New Zealand and the UK (which have all done more to encourage skilled migration than our country). If this passes, it's a solid step to making us more competitive.
It is ridiculous that they're focusing on spouses of H-1B holders instead of fixing the innumerable flaws and pains embedded in the H-1B process altogether (six year limit, long wait time for a green card, the restriction an H-1B holder is subject to, etc.)
Would not the companies be wary of hiring people on H4 considering their authorization to work depends on their spouses maintaining their H1 status ? There is an inherent risk that the H-1B holding spouse might lose their job.
Does this mean that bodyshops like Infy,tcs,WP, get two for the price of one ?<p>Lets say ole Raj went to some CS diploma mill in Bangalore. Then got a job at some Infy offshore hub where he learned PL/SQL and how to script in SAP land. Next, fell in love with the sexy girl in a nearby cube. After sweating bullets and pleading ( maybe a few cows were traded in the background), the families approved of the love marriage. Next, the husband bags a H1 via Infy to work in the IT dept at Cisco. Sexy hubby gets ez H1 and a job in IT at Marvel. Bingo! They can afford a 2br in Santa Clara. In fact, now the parents can visit for big chunks of time rather comfortably. Meanwhile, Infy has better margins and the American worker has slipped further into the abyss .