USCIS Acts To Eliminate Employment Disruption For Professional Workers

Employers who seek to reduce disincentives that currently encourage H-1B non-immigrant employees to abandon adjustment to lawful permanent residence status will benefit from a new employment authorization rule announced on February 24, 2015, by U.S. Citizenship & Immigration Services (USCIS). The new rule, effective May 26, 2015, will allow the spouses of H-1B employees to work in the United States during the period in which the H-1B worker awaits adjustment to permanent resident status. H-1B employees are those foreign national specialty occupation temporary workers who fulfill professional-level job duties in employment positions that mandate no less than a baccalaureate-level degree in education or equivalent work experience. The spouses of H-1B visa holders are derivative beneficiaries of their spouse's H-1B status and are granted H-4 status during the period of their spouse's temporary H-1B employment.