Right to work for H-4 visa holders stands as US Supreme Court declines appeal

The decade-long legal battle over the right of H-4 visa holders to work in the United States reached closure in mid-October, after the US Supreme Court (SC) declined to hear an appeal by Save Jobs USA , effectively leaving intact lower court rulings that upheld employment authorisation for certain spouses of H-1B visa holders.

The SC’s refusal to take up the case brings finality to a dispute that began in 2015, when the Obama administration introduced the H-4 Employment Authorisation Document (EAD) rule. to mitigate the problems faced by certain sections of immigrants (such as the Indian diaspora) who faced backlogs running into several decades to obtain an employment based green card.

Under the EAD rule, in those cases where the H-1B visa recipient is on track for a green card or has got an extension beyond the permitted six years, the spouse holding an H-4 visa can apply for employment authorization.

For thousands of families—many of them Indian—the decision ends years of uncertainty over whether spouses, largely women, would be forced to quit their jobs or leave the workforce.

This Supreme Court development comes on the back of a key ruling in August 2024, when the US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit affirmed that the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has the authority to grant work permits to certain H-4 spouses.

Read also: https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/world/us/right-to-work-remains-on-track-now-for-spouses-of-h-1b-workers/articleshow/112317332.cms

The district court had rejected arguments that DHS had exceeded its mandate under the Immigration and Nationality Act. Circuit Judge Walker, relying on earlier precedent in the Washington Alliance of Technology Workers case, had held that Save Jobs USA had failed to meaningfully distinguish its challenge, thereby upholding the district court’s summary judgment in favour of the government. This ruling had already solidified the legal footing of the H-4 EAD, providing relief to nearly a lakh Indian spouses who hold these work permits.

With the Supreme Court’s refusal to intervene, the focus now shifts to the future of the H-4 work programme under a Trump administration. Steven Brown, partner at Reddy Neumann Brown, an immigration law firm, in his blog post emphasised that the program’s legal footing is stronger than ever. However, he pointed out that during Trump’s earlier tenure as President, the administration had attempted to end the H-4 EAD through rulemaking, but the proposal never reached final publication. “Under Trump 2.0, DHS could revive those efforts with sharper focus. Possible actions include issuing a new notice of proposed rulemaking to rescind or narrow eligibility for work authorization, or directing internal reviews that slow or suspend EAD adjudications while new regulations are developed. Although any change would still need to follow the notice-and-comment process, the administration might move swiftly and test the limits of executive authority to reshape employment-based immigration policy,” he said.