In a move that will benefit the wives of thousands of Indian techies working in the US, the Biden administration has agreed to provide automatic work authorisation permits to spouses of H-1B and L-1 visas holders.

The settlement in the matter was arrived at by the Department of Homeland Security in a class-action lawsuit, which was filed by the American Immigration Lawyers Association (AILA) on behalf of immigrant spouses.

The settlement comes as a major relief as the spouses of Indian engineers were caught up in a months-long backlog to receive work permits and many of them are reported to have lost their jobs.

The litigation has resulted in reversing the US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) policy that prohibited H-4 spouses from benefiting from the automatic extension of their employment authorisation during the pendency of stand-alone applications.