Just curious, can someone apply for permanent residency in Canada without being there in the first place? If that's how it works I'll definitely consider that option.
> unless they have a made a productive use of time by doing stuff such as freelancing
H-4s cannot freelance. My wife is on H-4 and we felt quite disgruntled when our immigration attorney told us that. Basically, she can only do volunteer work. She cannot have income from any kind of work.
IANAL, but I think it is legal to work for a foreign company from US, as long as the company is in no way associated or affiliated to US. Someone please correct me if wrong.
Regarding the L2s being able to get their EADs but not the H4s, keep in mind that the latter are not the only ones in this situation, it's the same thing with TN/TD. And then you have the E-3 spouses (Australia) who _can_ get their EADs[2] :)
I think that the problem is that each visa/work status was created separately, so it's more than just a case of "since it works for this one, why doesn't it work for this other one". I agree with you that this current situation is ridiculous but I'm happy that they start addressing those issues, even if piece by piece.
1. http://recode.net/2014/05/06/congrats-h-1b-spouses-you-can-g... 2. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/E-3_visa
The way I see it, in the best case scenario a spouse can now get an EAD in 2 years (1 year before starting the GC process, 1 year to get the PERM and the I-140). Still far from being able to work right away, but progress nevertheless.
An efficient marriage strategy considering this proposal would be to get married after you are ~4-5 years into your H1B, and marry somewith with a STEM background. Now those would be very stringent marriage norms :)
- Their intent doesnt seem to be providing Spouses with opportunity to work, but instead prevent dropouts of those people who get fed up of the process and either go back home or apply for Canada PR. I know few such people myself
- Important point: During the 4-6 years when the spouse cannot legally work, either they have given up on their career or have already signed up for a graduate program in order to get an F1. It is basically useless to offer jobs to someone after 6 years of being jobless and they have very very less competitive advantage unless they have a made a productive use of time by doing stuff such as freelancing and pro-bono work.
- Dependents of L1 visa (L2) are allowed to work on EAD, I dont understand why it is so complex for H4's.
- Another effect of this would also mean that the govt might not consider increasing the CAP for H1B next year, but rather try to retain the exising H1B's and try to get their green card done.
So, although this change seems optimistic, it isnt that helpful (I myself was very excited after I first saw this)