Tech workers’ families in the Bay Area are facing yet another immigration headache that could potentially derail their entire careers.

The Trump administration has just dropped a bureaucratic bomb on H-4 visa holders, stripping away their ability to automatically extend work permits while awaiting renewal. This means thousands of predominantly Indian women working in tech could suddenly find themselves unemployed if immigration processing takes longer than expected.

A Silicon Valley Nightmare Unfolds

U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services claims this is about “screening and vetting” foreign citizens, but let’s be real - it’s another thinly veiled attempt to make immigrant lives more difficult. The agency’s current processing time is around four months, but immigration experts warn it could take even longer.

Who Gets Hurt?

Approximately 90,000 H-4 visa holders could be impacted, with the vast majority being women from India who’ve built careers in our tech ecosystem. Losing work authorization doesn’t just mean losing a job - it means potential career destruction and economic instability for entire families.

The Broader Context

This isn’t just about paperwork - it’s about continuing a pattern of systematically making immigrant professionals’ lives more challenging. The policy creates unnecessary stress and uncertainty for some of the most skilled workers contributing to our local and national economy.

The message is clear: under the Trump administration, immigrant tech workers and their families remain perpetual targets of bureaucratic harassment.