A new legal settlement with the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) in Edakunni v. Mayorkas provides for structural changes that will benefit nonimmigrant H-4 and L-2 spouses suffering from lengthy delays in processing times for extensions of status and employment authorization.
“The government and plaintiffs have signed off on a settlement in which USCIS would agree to return to bundling the adjudication of I-539s and I-765s for H-4 and L-2 derivatives along with the underlying I-129 when these forms are filed together,” according to a statement from Jonathan Wasden of Wasden Law and Steven Brown from Reddy & Neumann, P.C. Also involved in the settlement was Jesse Bless on behalf of the American Immigration Lawyers Association (AILA) and Kripa Upadhyay of Karr Tuttle Campbell. The new process is set to commence on January 25, 2023.
“The class action settlement in Edakunni focuses on what plaintiffs demanded in April of 2021 when this case was initiated: bringing back the concurrent processing methodology that even USCIS officials have stated in depositions was more efficient for adjudicators,” said Wasden and Brown. “Most importantly, when using this methodology, dependent spouses rarely faced job loss due to delays by USCIS.”
Prior to a Trump-era rule change in March 2019, USCIS would generally adjudicate an H-4 dependent petition and the H-4 EAD application at the same time as the H-1B petition from the same family. If premium processing were used, adjudications would take place within 15 days.
The wait times for H-4 EADs grew significantly after USCIS changed its policies, including requiring H-4 spouses to supply biometrics. H-4 visa extensions eventually took up to two years to process in the California Service Center, compared to a previous average of fewer than four months. Because of limitations on how early applications can be submitted to USCIS, the processing times made it mathematically impossible for many spouses to remain employed and authorized to work.
Congratulations to the team at Reddy & Neumann, P.C., Wasden Law, AILA and Karr Tuttle Campbell on a major victory for deserving nonimmigrant spouses.