President Obama’s planned immigration reform executive order will not increase the number of high-tech immigration visas but will allow spouses of those visa holders to work in the U.S., a right previously denied to them under current policy, according to sources who were briefed on announcement Thursday.
The new policy will finalize a rulemaking already underway by the Department of Homeland Security, effectively allowing an estimated 400,000 legal immigrants to seek work. Obama will announce the finalization Thursday night, the sources said.
Under current law, the H-1B visa program allows in an estimated 140,000 workers in “specialty occupations” annually. Their spouses are allowed to come to the U.S. under the separate H-4 visa program and are forbidden from seeking employment. Because of that, they do not count against the number of high-tech visas a company gets under current law.
A majority of the spouses have high-tech degrees also, immigration policy experts say — many met and married while in school — and so are expected to also seek work in the industry under Obama’s rules change.
Thus, while the policy change will not increase the total number of high-tech visas allowed, which is set by Congress, it will likely significantly expand the number of those workers allowed into the country. The spouses will not count as using H-1B visas.
Another change to the regulations would be to allow visas awarded to high-tech workers to not be tied to a specific employer, a situation that results in the immigrants becoming “indentured servants,” according to critics of current policy. Instead, the visa will become portable for the holder, allowing him or her to move from job to job.
Apart from the potential increase in legal high-tech workers, business groups are likely to be disappointed by Obama’s executive order. “There were a lot of small changes that business was asking for, but apparently nothing huge,” a source who was brief on the policy said.
One measure that business had requested was a “recapturing” of employment-based green cards, essentially allowing immigrants to use visas that were available in previous years but not used due bureaucratic delays.
“There are at least 300,000 unused numbers from previous years,” said Charles Kuck, a Georgia immigration lawyer who was not briefed on the rule.
A source said the president will urge the Department of Homeland Security to pursue a rulemaking on the issue.
The sources cautioned that the information was based on verbal briefings. The White House has apparently not provided any documents to interested groups, fearing the details will leak too early.
