Children of H-1B holders at risk: Lawmaker condemns 'aging out' policy

A powerful US lawmaker has criticised the policy affecting children of H-1B visa holders who "age out" their immigration status upon turning 21.

Understanding the H-1B Visa

The H-1B visa is a non-immigrant visa that allows US companies to employ foreign workers in speciality occupations that require theoretical or technical expertise. The technology companies depend on it to hire tens of thousands of employees each year from countries like India and China.

Children of H-1B visa holders who turn 21 before their parent secures a Green Card can lose their dependent status and age out of the ability to obtain a permanent resident card. A Green Card allows a non-US citizen to live and work permanently in America.

Green Card Backlogs

The extensive Green Card backlogs for high-skilled workers mean that H-1B visa holders must wait decades and even centuries before a Green Card is available to them, Congressman Jerrold Nadler, senior Democratic member of the House Judiciary Committee, said during a Congressional hearing on restoring immigration enforcement.

Impact on Families

Right now, if both parents have H-1B status, a child born abroad but who has lived in the United States for nearly their entire lives must leave the country when they turn 21 unless they have their own immigration status, he said on Thursday.

He also slammed President Donald Trump's executive order on birthright citizenship. Trump on January 20 signed an executive order declaring that future children born to undocumented immigrants would no longer be treated as citizens.

Implications for American-Born Children

That's bad enough, but under this executive order, even children born in the US to such parents might have to self-deport because they would be denied citizenship at birth, he said. Does it make sense to send children who are born in the United States to countries that they don't know, may never have been to and where they have no support network? Nadler asked.

Testimony on Immigration Policy

Testifying before the Congressional subcommittee on Immigration, Integrity, Security and Enforcement, David Bier from the CATO Institute said such a policy makes the country weaker. It discourages legal immigration. It discourages high-skilled immigration.

Look, I talked to a lot of high-skilled immigrants in this country. They talk about their family. They talk about the hope they have for their children to be Americans and to grow up in this country and to contribute to this country, he said. 

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