{"id":23538,"date":"2026-09-01T16:00:47","date_gmt":"2026-09-01T11:00:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/pakalerts.net\/english\/?p=23538"},"modified":"2026-09-01T16:00:47","modified_gmt":"2026-09-01T11:00:47","slug":"us-considers-ending-work-permits-for-spouses-of-h-1b-visa-holders","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pakalerts.net\/english\/?p=23538","title":{"rendered":"US considers ending work permits for spouses of H-1B visa holders"},"content":{"rendered":"

Washington: The Trump administration is considering ending work authorisation for certain spouses of H-1B visa holders, a move that could affect thousands of H-4 visa holders legally working in the United States.<\/strong><\/p>\n

According to foreign media reports, the proposal would reverse a rule introduced in 2015 that allowed eligible H-4 visa holders to obtain Employment Authorization Documents (EADs) and legally work in the US.<\/p>\n

If the proposal is eventually approved and implemented, certain dependent spouses of H-1B non-immigrant workers would no longer be eligible to apply for employment authorisation under their H-4 status.<\/p>\n

Indian professionals are expected to be among the most affected because Indian nationals make up a significant share of H-4 work permit holders.<\/p>\n

Data on H-4 Employment Authorization Document applications between 2014 and 2017 showed that 93% of approved work permits were issued to Indian nationals, while 94% of recipients were women.<\/p>\n

The proposal has been listed on Reginfo.gov under the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs and included in the US Department of Homeland Security’s long-term regulatory agenda.<\/p>\n

However, no date has yet been set for formally issuing the proposal.<\/p>\n

According to the DHS notice, the department intends to propose removing certain H-4 dependent spouses of H-1B non-immigrant workers from the categories of non-citizens eligible to apply for employment authorisation under category (c)(26).<\/p>\n

The proposed change would reverse provisions introduced under the 2015 rule and restore the earlier policy under which H-4 dependent spouses were generally not eligible to apply for work authorisation.<\/p>\n

Importantly, the plan remains a proposal and is not a final rule, meaning existing H-4 work permits will not immediately be cancelled.<\/p>\n

Before the change can take effect, DHS would have to publish a formal Notice of Proposed Rulemaking in the Federal Register, allow the public to submit comments and objections, and subsequently issue a final rule.<\/p>\n

Until that process is completed, H-4 spouses with valid EADs can continue working under the existing rules.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Washington: The Trump administration is considering ending work authorisation for certain spouses of H-1B visa holders, a move that could affect thousands of H-4 visa holders legally working in the United States. According to foreign media reports, the proposal would reverse a rule introduced in 2015 that allowed eligible H-4 visa holders to obtain Employment […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":23539,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"googlesitekit_rrm_CAowgLK2DA:productID":"","_sitemap_exclude":false,"_sitemap_priority":"","_sitemap_frequency":"","jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":{"subtitle":""},"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[47,46,37],"tags":[13521,13525,13522,5705,13523,13524],"class_list":["post-23538","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-important-news","category-latest","category-world","tag-h-1b-visa","tag-h-4-ead","tag-h-4-visa","tag-trump-administration","tag-us-immigration","tag-work-permit"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pakalerts.net\/english\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23538","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pakalerts.net\/english\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pakalerts.net\/english\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pakalerts.net\/english\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pakalerts.net\/english\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=23538"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/pakalerts.net\/english\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23538\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":23540,"href":"https:\/\/pakalerts.net\/english\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23538\/revisions\/23540"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pakalerts.net\/english\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/23539"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pakalerts.net\/english\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=23538"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pakalerts.net\/english\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=23538"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pakalerts.net\/english\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=23538"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}