H4 visa work approval
Allow spouses of H1-B visa holders to work in the United States
Please support legislation that would authorize H-4 Dependent Spouses to Seek Employment in the United States. Allowing the eligible class of H-4 dependent spouses to work encourages professionals with high demand skills to remain in the United States an d helps spur innovation and growth.
My first argument in favor of this legislation relates to the happiness of individual families. Unemployed spouses lack a sense empowerment and feel that the current immigration system extracts too high a price from high skilled immigrant families that desire togetherness and respect family values. At the same time, employed spouses on H1-B visas feel they are shortchanging their spouses by merely asking for their companionship in the United States.
My second argument relates to fairness across visa categories. Spouses of workers in certain other visa categories such as L1 are allowed to work in the US.
My third and most important argument relates to the economics of the issue. There is near unanimous agreement among leading economists that incentivizing high skilled immigrants to work in the United States benefits the economy a great deal. For a detailed survey of very prominent economists from diverse idealogical and political backgrounds, please refer to a survey conducted by the Booth School at the University of Chicago: http://www.igmchicago.org/igm-economic-experts-panel/poll-results?SurveyID=SV_0JtSLKwzqNSfrAF
On many other issues the above panel disagrees very sharply (I encourage you to browse the panel's responses on other issues as well), but on this issue, not a single economist surveyed disagreed with the statement: "The average US citizen would be better off if a larger number of highly educated foreign workers were legally allowed to immigrate to the US each year."
Allowing spouses of H1-B visa holders to work would be an efficient way to incentivize highly educated foreign workers. On a more specific note directly related to the spouses of H1-B workers, here's a quote from Yale economist, Dr. Mobarak, in The New York Times : "Talented people often meet and marry other educated, talented people, and having those productive spouses sit at home is a dead-weight loss to the United States economy."
http://economix.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/02/12/immigration-and-innovation/
My first argument in favor of this legislation relates to the happiness of individual families. Unemployed spouses lack a sense empowerment and feel that the current immigration system extracts too high a price from high skilled immigrant families that desire togetherness and respect family values. At the same time, employed spouses on H1-B visas feel they are shortchanging their spouses by merely asking for their companionship in the United States.
My second argument relates to fairness across visa categories. Spouses of workers in certain other visa categories such as L1 are allowed to work in the US.
My third and most important argument relates to the economics of the issue. There is near unanimous agreement among leading economists that incentivizing high skilled immigrants to work in the United States benefits the economy a great deal. For a detailed survey of very prominent economists from diverse idealogical and political backgrounds, please refer to a survey conducted by the Booth School at the University of Chicago: http://www.igmchicago.org/igm-economic-experts-panel/poll-results?SurveyID=SV_0JtSLKwzqNSfrAF
On many other issues the above panel disagrees very sharply (I encourage you to browse the panel's responses on other issues as well), but on this issue, not a single economist surveyed disagreed with the statement: "The average US citizen would be better off if a larger number of highly educated foreign workers were legally allowed to immigrate to the US each year."
Allowing spouses of H1-B visa holders to work would be an efficient way to incentivize highly educated foreign workers. On a more specific note directly related to the spouses of H1-B workers, here's a quote from Yale economist, Dr. Mobarak, in The New York Times : "Talented people often meet and marry other educated, talented people, and having those productive spouses sit at home is a dead-weight loss to the United States economy."
http://economix.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/02/12/immigration-and-innovation/
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