H4 Visa - A Fresh Debate

I was reviewing the H4 Visa updates and the last update is when the US government for once again updated the court on revoking the H4 EAD.  Once again the time-line provided is for 3 months and the next update is due on November 19. 

In the whole case, Save Jobs USA has been asserting on an early judgement on the case. The case that they highlight here is that the H4-EAD is hurting their job opportunities.  Does that stand a ground is the question here.  I will sight out a few cases that I have observed and that I have encountered in the industry where the Jobs are identified as getting impacted - 

1. One Network Administrator who was working with this company reached that position based on how the situations were handled by that person over a period of time. The total years of experience was 35 at age of 66 and the relevant experience was 6 years.  Education background  - high school pass with CCNA certification.  out of 6 years of relevant experience, the person in consideration was handling a store network for 3 years and based on the successful handling of the store network, gets moved to handle the Corporate Network.  A review of the overall work provides quite an interesting update - none of the older network rules ever get removed, just new rules get added and the routing rules grow over a period of time.  No route rationalization and not route updates.  This person was aligned with an H4 EAD holder for Network modernization and the H4 EAD is a Computer Science Graduate, 10 years of experience of Network Administration with CCNP certification in tow.  The case become aggravated as this Network Administrator starts with Social Media stating his job is in Danger due to a H4 EAD situation.  The question here is - How is the job in danger? is it due to the lack of knowledge in the field or lack of understanding of the overall technology?
2. One Security Administrator, Veteran at age 58 years, 32 years of experience, only 5 years experience of Information Security, In-charge of firewalls.  An H4 EAD was hired to work with the Security Administrator to help with Next Generation Firewalls and UTM devices. Starts showing the concern of Job loss due to the overall situation of H4 EAD. Why??
3. One 70 year old Contract Employee assisting the Organization for SoX Compliance, put under an H4 EAD along with other Compliance Analysts to move the overall Organizational Compliance Efforts under Unified Compliance Framework. Shows dissent and fear of Job loss. Where and Why??

There are similar other cases tons of them, where the main hue and cry round Job loss is more of a concern rather than actual case.  The whole situation is boiling out to be what it is because of the availability of higher skilled resources who right now are untapped due to the way Visa is constructed. Consider it that there still is a deficiency of high skilled resources in the field of IT and Cyber Security.  Consider that by 2020, the Demand and Supply gap for the Cyber Security Professionals would grow to almost a million and I the organizations are not going to address that gap by tapping the available pool of resources trapped under the condition of H4 Visa, there would be serious repercussions.  

Consider that skills are not something that are grow with age, it is important to have that exposure to the latest and best knowledge source and the capability to absorb it at the right time.  Not just in IT, but in other professions too, tapping the right skills is an important requirement for organization success.  

My Question to Save Job USA is - Why don't you bring the Manufacturing jobs back to USA? When Most of the products available in US markets are produced in other countries, doesn't that hurt the US Jobs and US economy?  

I support the Buy American motive as I believe that would boost the economy with more employment being created locally.

My request to the Save Jobs USA would be to address the concern holistically rather than just being aggressive against just a high skilled resource pool that was being brought out to the mainstream and support the US business and economy.

Legacy of H4 Visa

The day when the H4 Visa was created, least the regulators knew that they are creating a path of career destruction for millions. The Country, that has its base in immigrants and that has its most innovative developments initiated by immigrants actually made a gruesome mistake of barring immigrants from working, just because they were married to highly skilled immigrants in specialized roles.

What the regulators forgot then was the core that most if not all of the H4 dependents actually would be equally if not higher skilled and specialized as their H1B spouses would be.  And we all agree on this point as this is not the first time anyone is writing an article of this nature.  However, a partial relief came in during Obama regime when an executive order enabled H4 dependent spouses of H1B visa holders to obtain Employment Authorization (EAD) provided their spouses had their I-140 approved.  But others were still kept away from the "right to work". Strange isn't it that the H4 spouses who were working professionals before they moved to this country are treated as second grade unwanted residents although with their skills and specialization, they would actually generate more jobs and would add to the "Income Tax" paying population of the country.  Ah, but regulators and those opposing H4 EAD wouldn't be able to see this or should we say that they are blindfolded with what is politically correct thought and wave for them?

When "Save Jobs America" campaigns against H4 EAD or for that matter against the H1Bs also, why does it forget that on an average, US has shortfall of Skilled IT resources and in some work domains, the skills are far too less than what the actual demand is.  I can state this from my own experience where I have witnessed some insane hourly rate demands because some basic skills that are required in the trade have become "Niche Skills" just because the demand surged way past what the supply is. More so, the College Grads coming out will not be able to meet the requirements both by the sheer difference in Demand v/s Supply and by the experience required in those trade.  This doesn't mean that College Grads would not be good for those jobs, they would be, but then they would make a fresh head start rather than bringing their experience on the Subject Matter. This for sure is something that needs to be considered by the regulators before overturning the H4 EAD decision.

I am sure that the economic viability assessment that would have been conducted would provide far more insight with statistical data that certainly most of the Bloggers would not be able to collate.  The aspect that the US regulators need to note, understand, accept and acknowledge before making any adverse changes to the H4 EAD is - "What is more beneficial for the Country at large rather than what is Politically Correct?"  Indeed many a times the decisions are taken based on the Political Benefits and on the basis of What is Politically Correct, and such decisions never help in the Economic Growth.  

Regulators must also look at the aspect - "If L2 dependent of on L1 Visa Holder can get Employment Authorization, why should H4 Dependent only be barred from that Right to Work?  H4 dependents are as skilled and educated as the L2 dependents are and by no means should be restricted to the confines of their home. This if represented well in the Court of Law would become a challenging task for the government to answer, because this is where they themselves are back stabbing Right of Equality and the Diversity Program they advertise as the base of Right to Work.  And yeah, without explaining this, the Government would not be able to repeal L2 EADs as it would be another Political and Legal Challenge for them to face.