Petition closes on March 26th; needs 100,000 signatures.
By Deepak Chitnis
WASHINGTON, DC: A petition has been launched on the White House’s official website, urging that President Barack Obama pass a regulation that would allow employment for immigrants currently in the country under an H-4 visa.
The H-4 visa is given to the spouses and immediate family members (children under 21 years of age) of those who come to the US under an “H” visa – H-1A, H-1B, H-2A, H-2B, or H-3. People who hold an H-4 visa are afforded certain privileges, such as the ability to get a driver’s license and open up their own bank account, but they are unable to get a Social Security Number and, as this petition would like to change, cannot be employed in the US (they can, however, study at institutions within the country).
Now, a petition entitled “Please process 1615-AB92 (Employment Authorization for Certain H-4 Dependent Spouses)” is hoping to change that.
The petition, which is under the “We the People” section of WhiteHouse.gov, is seeking 100,000 signatures in order to convince Obama and the “leadership of the United States” to pass regulation 1615-AB92, which was introduced on the floor of Congress in 2011.
According to the proposal, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) would extend the opportunity of employment to H-4 visa holders while they wait to gain permanent resident status, also known as a Green Card.
“75% of H-4 visa holders are women,” says the petition, adding that these women are often just as educated, if not more so, than their husbands who come to the US on H-1B visas. “They are not allowed to work and are forced to wait until Green Cards are issued to them, but [the] average time for getting Green Cards for people [of] Indian [origin] is around 15 years.” Fifteen years of unemployment, especially for a woman, is lethal to the careers of those on H-4 visas.
One of the proponents of H-4 visa reform is Rashi Bhatnagar, an Indian-origin woman currently in the US on that very visa. Despite holding a master’s degree in mass communication and journalism, she is unable to work in this country, and has championed the cause of H-4 employment ever since coming to the US six years ago. Her Facebook page, “H4 visa, a curse,” has over 1,200 members, and her blog is also one of the most widely read on the subject.
“It is demotivating and it lowers our self-esteem,” said Bhatnagar in a story by The American Bazaar last year, speaking of the effects that the current H-4 restrictions have on unemployed women.
Bhatnagar has hyped up the petition on her Facebook page, but it is not confirmed that she is the one who actually created it. Launched on February 24, the petition closes on March 26, just five days away. However it only has 846 signatures so far, leaving it 99,154 away from reaching its goal.
1 Comment
do this already!