How Indian Women are Getting the Maximum H-4 Visas and Paid like H-1B Holders? - Report

As per a recent study by renowned Cato Institute in the US, Indian women play an integral part of US workforce. Without these professional Indian women, the US economy may contract by at least $7.5 billion annually. 

Past few months, the US administration has been trying to stop work permits for spouses of H-1B visa holders. Regarding the same, the Cato Institute states that, if the Trump administration succeeds, this will have a serious impact on Indian women and the US economy.

Meanwhile, David Bier, an immigration policy analyst at Cato Institute’s Centre for Global Liberty and Prosperity was quoted by Times of India (ToI) as nearly 90 percent of H-4 workers (spouses of H-1Bs get the H-4 visa) are highly paid women from India with college degrees. 

In his blog post, Bier's research read as if Trump succeeded after which the plan to encouraged their H-1B families to leave the country, the impact would be more than double the $7.5 billion estimated for women ceasing to work.

However, Cato Institute estimates that out of 5,00,000 spouses who are in the US on H-4, some 90,000 have work authorisations. Also, nearly two-thirds of H-4 visa holders sponsored by employers for permanent residence from 2015 to 2020 worked in computer and math occupations. While, two-thirds of those were software developers. 

Taking this in consideration, Indian male engineers on H-1Bs are clearly tending to marry equally qualified women who then join them in the US on H-4 visas, the report states. Another important reason why Indians dominate H-4's is that nearly 70 percent of the H-1B's go to Indians. 

In 2020, the Indian share of H-4's was even higher at 87 percent because Indian H-1B's receiving permanent residence in 2020 spent at least a decade before receiving green cards.