The Likely Release of Proposed Rule of H-4 Spouse EAD

Under the rule-making Executive Order, the OMB of the White House has from 30 days to 90 days to complete their review. There are some exceptions including any rules that involve emergency or serious economic impact, which can be completed within 30 days. Another rule is the OMB's authority to extend the maximum 90-day review mandate. In 2012, for obvious reasons, a host of visa and immigration related rules of the DHS, DOS, and DOL kept extended over and over beyond 90 days and some beyond 180 days. 

The reason why this proposed rule review may be completed in March 2013 is the bi-annual rule making agenda that set the target date at March 2013, implying that this proposed rule review schedule may follow the 90-day review schedule of the OMB and USCIS. The proposed rule was submitted by the USCIS to the OMB on 12/10/2012. We will see whether there will be any chance that the proposed rule review will be completed rather earlier under the 60-day review schedule. We will wait and see. 

This does not mean that the H-4 EAD rule can be implemented in March 2013. Once the proposed rule is published in the federal register with a period of comment, it will have to go through another cycle of the OMB review before the binding Interim Final or Final Rule can be published in the federal register.

Proposed rule is not binding.  Besides, depending on the USCIS policy, there will be an extended period of time for the agency toreview the comments which they received from the public before they draft and submit the Interim Final or Final to the OMB for review. The proposed rule will also provide from 30 days to 60 days comment period. Our smart visitors will be able to figure out the rough timeline, from the foregoing information, when the H-4 spouse EAD program may be in place and implemented.