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An estimated 100,000 foreign citizens in the U.S. facing a Trump Administration plan to strip them of the ability to work are now confronted with an additional threat to their jobs, according to a new lawsuit.
The Department of Homeland Security has announced but repeatedly delayed a plan to remove work authorization for the H-4 visa, a document used by spouses of H-1B holders, including many in the Bay Area, who are on track for green cards. However, in the meantime, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services has been slowing down H-4 visa and H-4 work permit processing to the point that holders of the visa may lose their jobs, alleges the suit filed by four foreign workers in Texas, Pennsylvania, Georgia and Illinois. 
The agency has “intentionally delayed the processing … in a completely arbitrary and capricious change in adjudication policy,” the suit alleged.
Citizenship and Immigration said it would not comment on the suit, per its policy on pending litigation.
Foreign citizens have been allowed to work under the H-4 visa since 2015 as long as they’re married to an H-1B holder who is in the process of getting a green card. Both visas have become flashpoints in the U.S. immigration debate, with critics pointing to reported abuses of the H-1B — which is heavily relied upon by both Silicon Valley technology giants and outsourcing firms linked to alleged abuses — and arguing that H-1B and H-4 workers supplant Americans with cheaper foreign labor.
The technology industry and advocates for foreign workers counter that the two visas allow companies to acquire top global talent, and say that foreign employees contribute to economic development. Silicon Valley tech firms push for an increase to the annual 85,000 cap on new visas.
The administration of President Donald Trump has taken aim at the H-1B and H-4, dramatically increasing the rate of denial for new H-1B visas — especially among outsourcers — and promising to scrap the H-4 work permit.
Before the alleged change in adjudication policy, a foreign couple’s applications and extensions for the H-4, the H-4 work permit and the H-1B were often processed together under the premium-processing service, and employment authorization was granted quickly after a perfunctory review of the H-4 applicant’s materials, according to the suit. Now, H-4 visa and work permit applications are being processed separately from the H-1B, the suit alleged.
Processing times for the H-4 work authorization run about five months at present, putting the plaintiffs and numerous others in the same situation at risk of losing their jobs, health insurance and driver’s licenses, and “causing a significant strain on the applicant’s personal finances as well as the American businesses that employ them,” the suit filed June 6 claimed.
All four plaintiffs are married to spouses who have received approved H-1B visas or extensions, but the plaintiffs’ H-4 work permits are still being processed, according to the suit, filed in U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C.
The plaintiffs are seeking a court order that Citizenship and Immigration decide on their applications, and an order forcing the agency to declare delayed adjudication unreasonable.
