A recent court filing by the U.S. Department of Homeland
Security (DHS) reaffirms the agency's commitment to rescinding
the H-4 rule, which provides work authorization to eligible spouses
of certain H-1B visa holders who are in the process of becoming
lawful permanent residents. In the document, DHS stated that its
"intention to proceed" with the proposed rescission rule
"remain[ed] unchanged," but DHS did not address when it
expected to publish the new rule.
In December of 2017, DHS announced its plan to rescind the H-4
rule in light of the priorities outlined in President Trump's
"Buy American and Hire American" executive order. At
the time, DHS was expected to publish the proposed rescission rule
in February of 2018, but
publication has been postponed twice since then. When asked
about the current timeline during a recent interview, U.S.
Citizenship and Immigration Services Director L. Francis Cissna
said the "regulation is still being worked on" and that
it
