Should spouses of foreign workers on H-1B visas be allowed to work in U.S.? Big Tech weighs in
Updated 12:54 PM;
Today 12:54 PM
The H-4 visa is critical to a couple’s decision to come to the U.S., buy a home and raise children, the tech companies argued. (Photo by David Ryder/Getty Images)Getty Images
Facebook Share
Big Tech is wading into a legal fight over visas to save the jobs of spouses of its foreign employees working in the U.S.
Amazon.com Inc., Apple Inc., Google, Microsoft Corp. and more than 20 other companies and organizations, including the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, on Friday urged a federal court in Washington to reject a lawsuit seeking to eliminate work authorization for more than 90,000 H-4 visa holders.
Big Tech is wading into a legal fight over visas to save the jobs of spouses of its foreign employees working in the U.S.
Amazon.com Inc., Apple Inc., Google, Microsoft Corp. and more than 20 other companies and organizations, including the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, on Friday urged a federal court in Washington to reject a lawsuit seeking to eliminate work authorization for more than 90,000 H-4 visa holders.
Eliminating H-4 visas “would not only siphon off U.S. gross domestic product, but gift that productivity – and the innovation that comes with it – to other nations, harming America’s global economic competitiveness into the future,” the companies and organizations said in a brief the court can consider in weighing the case.
Google Leads US Business Push to Preserve Work Permits for H-1B Spouses
Google and 29 other organisations contend undoing employment authorisation for spouses would cause financial havoc for families. By Reuters | Updated: 14 May 2021 18:58 IST
Google attorneys contacted trade bodies including the Information Technology Industry Council
Highlights
Undoing employment authorisation for spouses may cause financial havoc
A federal judge is expected to decide in the coming months
Google said on Friday it was leading about 30 companies and trade groups in opposing a lawsuit that seeks to stop over 90,000 spouses of highly skilled US visa workers from having jobs in the country.
This story is available exclusively to Insider subscribers. Become an Insider and start reading now.
Tech companies are campaigning to protect an Obama-era program that allows spouses of H-1B workers to also work in the US.
Google and other tech companies hire tens of thousands of overseas workers on H-1B visas each year. If the program is lost, the practical effect is that we welcome a person to the U.S. to work but we make it harder for their spouse to work, Google s VP of litigation wrote.
Google is leading a cohort of tech companies campaigning to protect the spouses and dependents of H-1B visa workers.