The Economic Value of Work Permits for H-4 Visa Holders

In 2015, the Obama administration gave some spouses of high-skilled, foreign-born workers permission to work while they reside in the U.S. The Trump administration’s 2019 proposal to withdraw this permission could negatively affect the economy, according to this paper from the American Action Forum. The author explains the conditions for granting an H4 visa, which allows the spouses and minor children of H-1B visa holders to live in the U.S. for the duration of the H-1B visa holder’s stay. The study uses American Community Survey (ACS) data to demonstrate the impact such a move would have on the economy. While it is difficult to provide an exact count of H-4 workers in the United States, the authors define such a worker as an employed spouse of an H-1B recipient, who is pursuing permanent residency in the U.S. The findings demonstrate that H-4 workers, the majority of whom were female, with nearly half holding a bachelor’s degree, are more highly educated than the overall U.S. working population, and tend to work in professional, scientific and technical services industries. Between 2015 and 2017, U.S. Customs and Immigration Services approved 90,946 applications for H-4 work authorization. As of 2019, these visa holders contributed an estimated $12.9 billion to the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) each year.  The article concludes that removing H-4 visa workers from the U.S. labor market could reduce the current GDP by up to $13 billion and potential GDP by up to $41 billion per year.  (Samantha Jones for The Immigrant Learning Center Public Education Institute)

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