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How Many H-1B Visa Will Be Available in 2014??

USCIS will start accepting cap-subject H-1B visa petitions on April 1, 2014. But how many H-1B visa will be available in 2014? Here is a quick summary:



  • Annual Cap: 65,000

  • Advanced Degree Exemption: 20,000
    for those who have obtained a master's or higher degree from U.S. universities.

  • Higher Education and Research Exemption: unlimited
    for those who will work at institutions of higher education or related or affiliated nonprofit entities, nonprofit research organizations or governmental research organizations

  • Guam Exemption: unlimited
    for those who will work in Guam or the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands

  • Chile and Singapore Treaty Set-aside: unused portion of 6,800
    Every fiscal year, 6,800 H-1B visas are set aside from the annual cap under the terms of the legislation implementing the U.S.-Chile and U.S.-Singapore Free Trade Agreements. Unused numbers in this pool are made available for H-1B use for the next fiscal year.


If immigration reform bill is not passed, there will be totally about 85,000 new H-1B visa available in April. However, if you will work in Guam or certain institutions of higher education and research organizations, there will be no quota restriction. 

If you are citizen of Chile or Singapore, you also do not have to worry about the cap, as the set-aside of 6,800 never used up every year. If you are citizen of Canada or Mexico, you can try TN visa which has no annual cap. If you are citizen of Australia, you can apply for E-3 visa whose annual quota is 10,500. 

We will release 2014 edition of H-1B Visa Report in late January. You can do you own analysis now sinceall raw data are now available on myvisajobs.com

U.S. employers are expected to file more than 150,000 H-1B visa petitions in the first week of April. It is time for you to update your career profile and pitch potential employers now!

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