TO THE MEMBERS OF THE UNITED STATES CONGRESS:

In order to preserve the ability to work for thousands of families, enable critical talent to drive innovation at companies small and large, and prevent the loss of U.S. jobs, we write to ask for your leadership influencing the US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) to process the H4 and EAD visas in a timely manner or provide exemptions if processing times are not improved. As part of the USCIS funding discussions, please include provisions for automatic 180-day extension on filing (similar to other EAD programs) as well as option for premium processing (like other visa categories).

Background

H4 and H4 EAD visas were created for dependents of those on employee visas.  H4 EAD provides work authorization, and a valid EAD is a requirement to maintain work status for applicants. Based on data from the state department, 128,375 H4 visas were issued for full-year 2019. H4 visas need to be renewed every 3 years, so an estimated 42,000 applicants (est. 3,500 every month) will be filing for renewal in 2020. The renewal process can only be started 6 months before the visa expires, however the processing time is currently up to 12 months.  

Impact of USCIS processing delays

There has been little progress for applications filed since Feb 2020. Hence the process will naturally lead to thousands of employees of US companies losing their ability to work. At best, they will lose their earnings, insurance, and other benefits from their employer for an extended period. At worst, they will lose their jobs. It should be noted that the H4-EAD is used by women, who will be impacted the most from delays. In a time of great national crisis with COVID, for no fault of their own, and having complied with all requirements, thousands will overnight turn unemployed due to processing delays.  Additionally, this harms the US economy as tax revenue from these employees is lost, and delays projects at several companies that employs these engineers, scientists, teachers, health professionals etc.

Solutions for H4/EAD Processing Delays

As part of the USCIS/DHS funding bills, please include provisions to address the significant processing times. USCIS can mitigate the impact to thousands of families, their employers and prevent loss of tax-revenue with some simple solutions.

1.     Provide automatic extension of 180 days to applicants, in line with what is already provided to several visa categories. The H4-EAD (C-26 category) and L2 (A-18) is not included in the list of visa categories and a simple update will prevent thousands of jobs lost and significant economic hardship for families.

2.     Offer premium processing options for the H4 / H4-EAD categories to resolve cases within 15 days, like what is offered to other applications. This will have the added benefit of creating additional revenue options for USCIS, alleviating their funding challenges.

These are common-sense administrative fixes, which keeps taxpayers in the workforce and mitigates the impact of significantly longer processing times.  We seek your help to influence USCIS to consider these solutions.

Thank You.

Sources:

1 https://travel.state.gov/content/dam/visas/Statistics/Non-Immigrant-Statistics/NIVWorkload/FY2019NIVWorkloadbyVisaCategory.pdf

2 https://egov.uscis.gov/processing-times/

3 https://www.uscis.gov/working-in-the-united-states/information-for-employers-and-employees/automatic-employment-authorization-document-ead-extension

4 https://www.uscis.gov/news/alerts/uscis-resumes-premium-processing-for-certain-petitions