Will this year's H1B Visa quota increase or decrease
On January 25, Republican Senator Orrin Hatch Jeff Flake introduced legislation that would double the number of H-1B visas, and prioritize adjudication of cap-subject H-1B visa petitions for holders of U.S. advanced degrees and STEM bachelor degrees. read details
The bill is promising , but unlikely to become law within 2 months. When USCIS starts accepting cap-subject H-1B visa petitions on April 2, the annual quota will stay the same as last year:
Since USCIS is expected to receive nearly 180,000 H-1B visa petitions during the first week of April, it will use a lottery system to randomly select the petitions.
The bill is promising , but unlikely to become law within 2 months. When USCIS starts accepting cap-subject H-1B visa petitions on April 2, the annual quota will stay the same as last year:
- 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.
Since USCIS is expected to receive nearly 180,000 H-1B visa petitions during the first week of April, it will use a lottery system to randomly select the petitions.
- USCIS will first sort out multiple or duplicative H-1B petitions filed by one employer for same employee. USCIS will deny those petitions without refunding the filing fees.
- USCIS will then sort out U.S. Master's cap petitions from non-U.S. Master's cases and then use a lottery system to randomly select 20,000 winners.
- All cases not selected as part of the U.S. Master's lottery will be entered into the bachelor's cap lottery system.
- USCIS will reject and return all unselected petitions along with filing fees.
- New H1-B Visa database(updated daily, calendar year)
- New Green Card database(update daily, calendar year)
- Legacy H1-B Visa database(updated quarterly, fiscal year)
- Legacy Green Card database(Update quarterly, fiscal year)
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