Doctors, teachers and entrepreneurs who have a H-4 visa, are afraid of losing their business and jobs

Obama's executive order allowing spouses of H-1B holders to work and open businesses in the United States allowed Alpa Gaiera to start her restaurant business. But now the Trump administration has said it plans to propose rescinding the rule, a move that could lead to its case being thrown out.

Photos from the personal archive of Alpe Geier

Geyer comes from India. In the United States, she is on a H-4 visa, which is usually granted to spouses and children of H-1B visa holders.

In 2015, President Obama issued a decree according to which spouses of H-1B owners who are awaiting their green cards have the right to work and start a business in the United States. For Gaiera, an engineer-programmer by training, this decree allowed to realize the dream of his own business.

Her husband Linesh, a Canadian software engineer, is an H-1B visa holder and has been on the green card waiting list since 2012, a process that could take several more years.

Gayera's H-4 visa previously prevented her from working. “I had to sit at home doing nothing, but I have an IT degree and I wanted to work or start a business,” she said.

After Obama's executive order went into effect, Gaiera became a franchisee, investing hundreds of thousands of dollars—almost all of the couple's savings—to purchase two restaurants. Rising Roll Gourmet Cafés in Atlanta.

She now has six employees - all of them are US citizens, she noted.

The business was profitable, and Gayera planned to open two more restaurants and create more jobs. But if her work permit is canceled, all efforts and plans will be in vain.

“I’m very concerned,” Gaiera said. — How can I close my business overnight? What do we do?".

Photos from the personal archive of Alpe Geier

In April, the director of the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) reported in a letter to the Senate Judiciary Committee that the agency is promoting a proposal to cancel a work permit for H-4 visa holders.

Earlier, the Department of Homeland Security stated that this step would be relevant, as was the decree “Buy American, hire Americans”, which President Trump signed in April 2017 of the year.

Since 2015, USCIS has approved more than 100 000 work permits for spouses H-4.

“Revoking their work authorization is such a punitive measure,” said Alex Nowrasteh, a senior immigration policy analyst at the Cato Institute. “This is a group for whom it is just a matter of time before they also receive their green card.”

H-4 visa holders can apply for a H-1B visa on their own to continue working, but this is almost impossible, since you need to work for a US firm and participate in the H-1B visa lottery.

Not allowing them to work is also short-sighted, Nowrastekh added. “Money earned is money spent,” he said. “This increases economic growth and jobs for more people in the United States.”

And Novrastech claims that the holders of the H-4 visas do not steal American jobs.

“The notion that there are a certain number of jobs and if an immigrant takes a job there is one less job for an American, that's wrong,” he said.

One high school outside Atlanta was able to close a very important job as a physics teacher with an H-4 visa owner.

A teacher from India who wished to remain anonymous, received a degree in physics in the United States and became a candidate of technical sciences in experimental atomic and molecular physics in Canada. She is married to a certified accountant who works in a consulting firm and is awaiting a green card.

After receiving her doctoral degree, she applied for a job as a physicist in industrial firms. Despite her work experience, everyone demanded US citizenship or permission to work in the USA.

“I knew there was a shortage of physics teachers because physics is one of the toughest sciences and physics graduates are always less in number compared to other sciences,” she said.

A few days after she received permission to get an H-4 visa in 2015, she found a job as a physics teacher at school.

If the Trump administration cancels the work permit, she will have to resign.

“I really hope that doesn’t happen,” she said. — Physics is a prerequisite for graduating from high school. I replaced one physics teacher at this school, but there is a need for two more.”

A similar situation is observed in a doctor's office in South New Jersey, where an immigrant doctor fears that she may have to quit and leave hundreds of patients.

An allergist who asked not to be named is currently working part-time and accepts 40 to 55 patients per week.

Originally from India, she received a scholarship at the University of Buffalo on an H-1B visa, and then transferred to H-4 in 2016 year after her husband applied for a green card. Due to strong delays in processing green cards, her husband can wait 10 for years or even longer.

“If I lose my work permit in a couple of weeks or months, I will have to give up the practice and my patients,” she said. “The country continues to experience a shortage of allergists at a time when the number of allergy sufferers is increasing.”

“I am not taking away a job from a U.S. citizen because there is a shortage in my profession,” she said. “I contribute to the economy and help take care of people in America.”

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